You know how you look forward to something for a long time; you plan it, dream about it and go over the scenarios in your mind? Well, anyone who knows me knows that one of the high points of my off-season is the time I spend hunting in Kansas.
They also know that I carry some pretty big expectations with me when I head north out of Oklahoma.
Well, I made the trip last week, got my Kansas deer and made it home safely. The weather was pretty nice and everything went smoothly, but…
The truth is that I’m a little disappointed.
I think it’s a mix of sadness that my Kansas hunting is over for the year, along with the realization that I probably shot the wrong deer.
I’m not completely unhappy with the one I shot – it was a mid-140s. I look for mature bucks and this one was certainly a good one to shoot back home. But I go to Kansas to hunt trophy deer and I think I probably ended my hunt prematurely.
Here’s how it went down:
For the past few years, I’ve hunted on public lands in southeastern Kansas, but this year I met a guy who let me hunt on his lease in the south-central part of the state. He has a hunting shack on the property, so I made the 2 ½-hour trip with my uncle Mark and we stayed there for a few nights.
Trips like this are a lot like fishing an out-of-town tournament. You get into town, get your housing squared away, buy your local license and get some groceries. But the main difference is that on a tournament trip, you know how long you’re going to be there and with deer hunting, you play it by ear.
The plan was to look around a couple of days and then hunt a couple of days; but the way it worked out, a good one walked by me around 9 a.m. the second morning I was there and I shot it. I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it and now, I’m kind of aggravated at myself because killing one so quickly takes away the enjoyment of the trip.
You see, I don’t go to Kansas just to kill a deer – I go to Kansas to hunt. I like being out in the woods knowing I have a legitimate chance of killing a trophy deer.
The funny thing was that I had actually passed that deer up the previous evening. Then, the next morning, that same buck chased a doe by and he came through the brush pretty quickly.
We had seen a bigger one with similar colored horns. But when this one came through, I had maybe two seconds so I shot.
I’ve said before that remaining competitive as a professional fisherman requires that you never stop learning on the water. I think the same thing is true in the woods – every trip presents several opportunities to increase your knowledge and your understanding of the sport.
I’d say my recent Kansas trip taught me a lesson about patience. As I get older, I tend to try to kill only mature deer. But this time the kid in me came out and I probably got caught up in the moment. But that’s why we hunt – for that adrenaline rush.
The last two years, I’ve eaten my tag because I held out so long for a big one that I just ran out of time. I didn’t mind because I knew I wanted something I’d be really happy with. I know some people can hunt in Kansas and be happy with a 125-inch deer, but I can kill those back in Oklahoma.
I’ve always told myself that when I’m hunting in Kansas, I’d wait for the right deer. I just didn’t do that this year.
I’ll be heading back to Kansas again soon, but since I used my tag, I’ll just be going to help other guys on the trip. I’ll give them a hand with their gear, cook and just enjoy the experience of being out there. I might shoot a doe, but my Kansas buck experience is over until next year.
I’m going to be thinking long and hard about this year’s hunt and it’s going to have me pretty charged up for next year’s hunt. In the meantime, I’m going to be focusing my efforts back home on this big, old buck that I’ve been watching for a while now.
This one has a unique rack and I can tell he’s a smart old deer because I get one trail cam picture of him and then that’s it. I can put up another camera 100 yards away and I might get one more photo.
It’s like he knows there’s a camera there and he avoids it. Deer like that are challenging to hunt because they’re so smart. You can’t hunt the same tree more than once because he knows you’re in there.
You just hope one time you get it right and he makes a mistake. If I get that chance, I’m not letting this one walk by me. I figure killing this big buck might hold me over until next year’s Kansas hunt.