U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Most hunters spend their time chasing nickels rolling down the street and never see the diamonds under their feet. Backyards aren’t supposed to be sanctuaries for big bucks. Everyone assumes you must get well away from your home to find an older-age-class buck to hunt. But Harry Daisey of Seaford, Delaware, discovered the diamond under his feet in his own backyard in the form of a huge 11 pointer.
“I was walking my dogs in my backyard in 2012 when they jumped a bunch of does with one big buck that had antlers out past his ears,” Harry Daisey from Seaford, Delaware, recalls. About a half hour later, Daisey’s dogs jumped another deer in nearly the same place. Daisey then decided to put trail cameras out in the woods at the back of his house where the deer had run out of his neighbor’s property with its pine thicket onto the next neighbor’s land. Daisey eventually leased both properties for hunting – a total of 21 acres – assuming that the bucks and the does were bedding in the 15 acres of pines and feeding in a 6-acre strip of hardwoods adjacent to the pines. Daisey concentrated his trail-camera surveys on this 6 acres that contained hardwood timber of mainly oaks but also sweet gums and holly.
As Daisey observed the deer’s movement patterns with his trail cameras, he discovered the deer weren’t bedding in the pines as he’d assumed earlier but actually were bedded down in the hardwoods. Before deer season arrived, Daisey had trail-camera pictures of a 9 pointer and an 11 point buck bedding with the does in the 6 acres. Daisey removed his trail cameras about 6-8 weeks before blackpowder season arrived, because he was afraid the flash of the cameras would spook the older age-class bucks.
When the October muzzleloader season arrived in Delaware, Daisey decided to hunt the 15 acres of pines one of his neighbors owned, and Daisey had leased. He asked his neighbor to come pick him up in his car after dark, so that the vehicle would spook the deer holding in the pines and keep them from seeing Daisey as he climbed down from the tree stand where he’d been hunting. Before his neighbor picked up Daisey from the 15 acres of pines, Daisey had watched nine does filter out of the hardwoods in the 6 acres and come in to feed near his stand. Once Daisey’s neighbor dropped Daisey back at his truck after dark, Daisey then remembered he’d left his coat at the foot of his tree stand. He drove back to his stand, retrieved his coat and while turning his truck around to leave his stand site, saw in the beams of his headlights three different sets of deer eyes, looking at him on the 6 acres.
A few days later, Daisey decided to hunt the 6-acre patch and carried a climbing tree stand into it. While he was adjusting his climbing tree stand, Daisey spotted a big doe bedded down with her head up and realized he’d have to shoot her to keep her from spooking other deer in the area. He shot and then took a second shot. Looking at his watch, Daisey realized he only had about an hour of shooting time left and didn’t have time to walk to another stand before dark. He left the doe where she lay, got into his climbing tree stand, went up the tree and watched as more does came into the area and milled around the downed doe.
Next, Daisey heard a sound and spotted a nice 8 pointer, that would score about 140. The buck fed right up to the tree where Daisey was sitting, continually glancing back over his shoulder to the holly thicket from where he’d come. Then Daisey barely heard another deer moving in the holly thicket. Suddenly he spotted a big buck standing behind a tree with only his head and neck visible on one side of the tree and his hindquarters visible on the other side.
Once the huge buck moved around the tree, presenting Daisey with a broadside shot, Daisey squeezed the trigger on his Knight inline muzzleloader. The buck bolted and ran about 40 yards, falling about 20 yards from the downed doe. Daisey then called several friends who were hunting another piece of property he had leased about a mile away from his home to ask them to come and help him get both deer out of the woods.
Daisey believes that more big bucks like the 11 pointer he took on October 11, 2012, are living in the 6 acres of hardwoods. He plans to continue to lease all 21 acres of land and check his trail cameras in hopes of finding another big buck that uses this small piece of land as a bedding site and a daytime sanctuary.
* BTR Score – Buckmasters’ Composite Score – Number of Inches: 180-3/8
* Official Buckmasters’ Score: 162 (doesn’t include inside spread of main beams)
This is an excerpt from John E. Phillips newest book “Whitetail Deer and the Hunters Who Take Big Bucks”. Click here http://johninthewild.com/books/#deer to get more info about this deer hunting book and other deer hunting books by John E. Phillips.
About John E Phillips:
The author of almost 30 books on the outdoors, many on Amazon, Phillips is a founding member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and an active member of the Southeastern Outdoors Press Association (SEOPA).
Phillips also is the owner of Night Hawk Publications, a marketing and publishing firm, and president of Creative Concepts, an outdoor consulting group.
Visit him Online at www.nighthawkpublications.com