I have been to North Dakota the last two years archery hunting during the month of December. In 2003, I took a 10-point whitetail that scored 163 P&Y; in 2002 I took another 10 point that scored 130 P&Y.; I was not planning on going in 2004, but decided at the last minute to go by myself.
It was just before our rifle deer opener here in Michigan, when I decided to give the outfitter a call and see how the hunt was going in North Dakota. Billy told me that the weather was very warm, as it was in most of the mid-west. But that the rut was just beginning and the whitetails were chasing the does everywhere. I had another hunt planned in several days and knew that I would not be able to stay the entire 5 days of the hunt. I would have to leave after the fourth day and drive straight back from North Dakota without any stops along the way, in order to make my other hunting trip on time.
But it was not that hard of a decision after thinking about the monster bucks I have taken and seen in North Dakota the last two years.
I arrived in Killdeer, North Dakota on the Sunday before my hunt was to start. This ranch has 14,000 acres. Part of the ranch is rolling farmlands with small woodlots; the other part of the ranch is made up of the Foot Hills of The Badlands. The foothills has lots of giant mule deer bucks, the farmlands is where the whitetails hang out. Billy has several archery only ranches; there is no rifle hunting allowed on these ranches. If you get an any deer archery tag you can take either a whitetail or a mule deer buck. If not, you can buy a whitetail tag over the counter. Billy has over 50 stands and blinds on the property. The stands are 12-foot ladder stands and the ground blinds look like bales of hay.
When I arrived in camp I was surprised to see David Ciekot. David is an outdoor writer and has been in camp with me the two previous years. Last year he took a 168 P&Y; mule deer. Also in camp were four hunters from Boston, they were hunting for mule deer along with David. The four hunters from Boston had arrived the day before I did and had already taken one good mule deer buck and missed another. The pre-rut was just beginning for the mule deer.
Sitting in my ground blind the first morning of my hunt, I could not believe how warm it was. It had to be 40 degrees at 7:00am. As the sun began to rise I listened as several coyotes opened-up with a tune that would scare a lot of people, yet to me it was like listening to music. I started to see deer feeding throughout this giant valley. My ground blind was sitting next to a fence line. The fence line ran down to a cattle gate that was left open for the deer to walk into the field to feed. At least that was the plan. Billy had watched the deer many times leave a patch of woods, then follow the fence line down and walk through the gate in order to feed in the field. My blind was 15 yards away from the gate.
Now, of course not all of the deer would follow that same path in order to get in to the field to feed, as I was about to observe during the next several days of hunting.
As the sun finally rose I could see deer all over the field. I counted as many as 40 does and several smaller bucks at any given time. It took about an hour before I saw my first big buck. I watched him walk into the field toward a group of does that were feeding. I then noticed another big buck walking in to the field from the other direction toward the same does.
Watching through my binoculars I was able to determine that both bucks were 10 pointers that were in the 160 P&Y; class. They kept walking toward each other, and I sat back thinking I was going to witness a major battle between these two monster whitetails. As they got with-in a few feet of each other, they circled one another then walked off into different directions. I have never witnessed two big bucks fighting before; I guess they figured there was enough does for the both of them. After they checked out most of the does in the field, they decided that they were not ready to breed and left in separate directions.
Later another big 10 point walked into the field, and he started chasing a doe. The doe was following the fence line right toward my blind. She followed the fence line right down to the gate and ran through it. The buck followed her until he got about 40 yards out and abruptly turned toward the fence. He then jumped the fence and ran after the doe. I sat there in disbelief, I could not believe what I had just seen. That buck only had to come another 10 yards or so and I would have had a shot at him!
In the next 3 hours I saw 3 other whitetail bucks and one mule deer buck that looked like a steering travel thorough the field. That doesn�t include all of the whitetail and mule deer does that I saw entered into the field to feed. I thought to myself, not bad for the first morning�s hunt.
While having lunch I decided that I would try setting out a doe decoy. I figured that with all of the rutting activity going on, if I set one close enough to my blind I might draw a big buck in close enough for a shot.
With all of the deer activity going on I wanted to get back out right after lunch. One of the hunters from Boston had wounded a deer. Billy, along with the hunter was going to spend the afternoon looking for it. I was told it was a monster mule deer buck.
After setting out the decoy, I got into my blind. It didn�t take long for the action to begin. Another note to this story that I haven�t mentioned yet, was that I could see my blind that I took the 163 P&Y; whitetail from last year. It was about 1000 yards away; and sat right next to a patch of woods.
After a short period of time does started to filter into the field. During the afternoon hunt 3 mature whitetail bucks walked into the field from different directions. They all began to chase does around the field. None of them had any interest in my decoy. I did have a good 4x4 mule deer buck walk with-in shooting range, but this trip all I had was a whitetail tag. During this afternoon hunt I saw over 40 whitetail deer and 15 mule deer.
Once back at the ranch, I learned that the mule deer buck that was wounded that morning was alive and well. Both Billy and the hunter kicked him up from his bed; he appeared to only have a minor wound to his leg. But they did say he was a monster, he would probably score over 180 P&Y.;
As the sun rose on the second morning of my hunt, I saw several smaller bucks chasing does around the field. I had another good mule deer buck walk with-in shooting range. Through-out the morning I saw several good bucks walk through the field, after not finding any does in heat they walked across the field into the patch of woods that was located next to the blind I hunted in last year. I decided to move over to that blind for the afternoon hunt.
After a hardy lunch I returned for my afternoon hunt, but I went to last year�s blind. I had two different smaller 10point whitetails come by my blind. I decided to pass on both of them. I also had a monster mule deer buck walk through looking for a hot doe. During this evenings hunt I saw at least 40 whitetails, several were bucks. At dinner I learned that the same hunter from Boston who wounded a mule deer buck, missed one during the evening hunt.
I started the third day of my hunt staying in the blind from the previous year. As the sun rose I saw as many as 20 does feeding in the field. I then noticed a coyote sitting on a distanced hill over looking the fields. After a short period of time he ran down into a valley and met up with two of his buddies. They began to wrestle on the ground with each other and it reminded me of puppies playing together. I then noticed a very large whitetail standing on top of another hill watching the coyotes play. I thought he would walk off in the other direction. But he didn�t, he walked right down the hill. He walked with-in 30 yard of the coyotes, it was as if he was saying (you want some of this). The coyotes stopped for a minute, watched him walk by, then they continued to play with one another. After a short period of time they took off.
After a short period of time I watched a 150-class whitetail buck follow the fence line down toward the other blind I had been hunting. He walked right through the gate, stopped about 15 yards away from the blind and fed for about 10 minutes. I could not believe what I had just seen. Of course, I was kicking myself for moving to the other blind. Later I had two smaller whitetail bucks come through, but they were not shooters. I saw some of the ranch hands pull up in a farm truck and drop off a big pile a grain near the other blind.
I normally don�t like to play musical chairs with my hunting stands, so I decided to continue to hunt at the same blind after lunch. That was a mistake, during the afternoon hunt I saw three shooter bucks and over 20 does stop and feed at the grain pile that had been dumped off at my first blind. Guess what, I decided to move back for my last day of hunting. At dinner that night, I found out that another hunter from Boston missed another deer. This time it was a very big whitetail buck!
On the fourth and final morning of my hunt I saw several bucks and over 30 does. I had 1 shooter buck chase a doe with-in 40 yards and another buck walked by with-in 40 yards. But that was a little out of my range.
After lunch I headed out for my final hunt. The wind had picked up and was blowing very hard. There were a lot of deer out in the field, and all of them wanted to feed at the grain. The grain pile was 28 yards away, I got to watch a lot of mature does chase off smaller does, then the smaller bucks would chase off the bigger does. Then all of a sudden this big 10 pointer appeared at the pile, of course all of the deer backed off for this big guy to feed.
I decided that this buck would look pretty good hanging on my wall at home. I drew back my bow and just started to drop my pin from the top of his back down to his vitals. Then he just took off running, I am not sure what happened. I figured that the wind spooked him off. Needless to say I was starting to feel that I would be going home without a deer.
Little did I know that in a few minutes I was going to get another a crack at another big deer. To my surprise and shock I looked up and saw this monster whitetail at the grain pile. I do mean a monster, he was bigger then the 163 P&Y; I took last year.
When I saw him the first thought I had, was the wind going to spook this deer off as well or he would run off after a hot doe before I had a chance for a shot!
I pulled my string back and placed the pin on his vitals, I then released the arrow and the buck simply ran off about 30 yards and stopped. He acted like nothing had happened. I wasn�t sure what had happened, but I missed him. I didn�t see where the arrow went, all I knew was that I just missed this giant whitetail and my hunt was almost over. Needless to say I was very upset with myself.
But before I could fall on one of my arrows, another big buck appeared at the grain pile. It was just about the end of shooting time. I quickly nock my arrow, drew back and aimed at the same spot as I did for the previous deer. When I released this arrow I knew I had hit the deer hard. He took off running like a freight train, ran for 40 yards and piled up.
Of course I was no longer upset with myself. My first thought was to run over and look at it, but there were a lot of deer still in the field and I didn�t want to ruin the blind for another hunter. So I waited until my ride showed up, it seemed like to took forever. David had come to pick me up because the boys from Boston were looking for another deer that was wounded. As we walked over to the deer there were probably 40-50 deer still in the field, but with the vehicle there they didn�t appear to be very spooked. Dave and I were very happy that we didn�t have to track the deer into a gully, he was a very big deer. He had 8 points, very wide with good tine length. He scored out at 140 P&Y; and Billy guessed his live weight at about 270lbs.
We spent most of the night caping him out, because I was planning on leaving first thing in the morning. From the ranch to St Ignace it was 1000 miles. I had great traveling weather on the trip back and made it back in time to leave for my other trip.
The next day Billy put one of the hunters from Boston in the same blind I had taken my buck in. He ended up taking a 150 class P&Y; from the same stand. A couple of days later David took a mule deer buck that had a 31-� inch spread.
Not bad, in three years I took a 130, 163 and a 140 P&Y; whitetail bucks with my bow. I am going back in Dec 2005, this time I think I am going to focus on a mule deer buck.
If you are interested in an archery whitetail, mule deer or antelope contact me at 989 344-9038 or at [email protected].
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