Story By: Kacie Ballenger | Hunter
The morning of October 22nd, my boyfriend, Devin Thiel, and I woke up and decided to hunt a stand we had not hunted yet this year. The wind was ideal for this location, and the temperature was in the mid 30’s, so we decided to give it a shot and it turned out to be an amazing decision. Like usual we prepared ourselves for the hunt by using scent eliminators and cover scents. Then, we loaded our bows and tote with our hunting gear into the bed of our UTV and headed into the woods.
To get to this particular stand location, we had to ride beside a creek that has corn fields on both sides of it. Once we got halfway to our stands, we parked and got our bows out of the cases and the rest of our gear. As we were walking along the creek, we got approximately 100 yards from the stand and bumped a deer that was standing in between the corn. The deer just bounced off, unaware of what we were, so we stopped for a minute before continuing on.
The stand location is 20 yards inside the edge of a peninsula of woods on a ridge. On the south side of the peninsula of woods, there was approximately 800 acres of corn, and the north side overlooks a grassy valley. The stand is set up with climbing sticks and two hang-on stands; one is facing the edge of woods and corn, and the other stand is a few feet higher and faces inside the woods.
Once we were in the stand and the sun started peeking from the horizon, we could see movement through the woods in the valley. Right around legal shooting time we had a nice, young 10-point buck come down between the edge and the corn.
Kacie and Devin hold their giant bucks they shot within minutes of each other from the same stand
Shortly after, Devin then tapped me and told me there was a shooter coming down this same path in front of Devin’s stand. I got the video camera ready. His buck stopped about 75 yards from us on the edge and took some time making a large scrape and thrashing the trees on the edge of the woods. He then continued moving down the edge towards us. The buck stopped broadside at 22 yards in front of Devin’s stand, and Devin made a perfect shot. The buck ran about 75 yards and fell over.
After we celebrated and gave the buck some time, we were going to climb out of the stand to check him out. I looked over through the woods and saw another buck coming down the creek on the ridge and towards Devin’s buck. It was hesitant and was trying to figure out what the buck was doing. After circling Devin’s buck many times, he made a scrape right next to him. He then started smelling and following the blood trail of Devin’s buck. He walked the blood trail all the way to where Devin shot his. He stood there trying to figure things out, and I drew my bow back. At this time, Devin had the video camera as I was preparing to shoot my buck. I had to wait for the buck to take another step forward for me to have a clear shot.
He took one more step forward and stood broadside, creating a perfect opportunity for us to double up on bucks! After Devin shot a buck last year on the 22nd of October, and us doubling up this year on the 22nd, we know we will continue to hunt on this date in the future.
