"Sickle Bar" Buck - On the Ground

**Lonewolf76** · November 16, 2015

I am fortunate to be part of a lease in Kansas for the last 2 years where it is only my 1 friend and myself. We both have similar goals and bow hunt the property only. I headed out last week with high hopes of what looked like good weather and dreams of a buck my buddy had named Stickers coming into range. So after getting there on Saturday I was excited to get right in a stand so after some lunch and an hour and half drive we arrived at the little farm house on the property where we would be staying. I quickly showered and headed out, had some deer action almost immediately. This particular stand site is one that we picked last year after seeing 5 bucks cut down a steep creek bank into a bottom while we sat in the truck. It's a beautiful spot with a creek that wraps around it and you can slip into the spot without disturbing much by crossing the creek. Well that first night, I had an unbelievable encounter with "Stickers" who came in at just about dark, he snort wheezed at another buck at about 30 yards then ran towards me and stopped broad side at only 18 yards but in some thicker stuff. I slowly came to full draw and went to settle my pin and noticed that I really could not see him clearly or what was between us clear enough to shoot and I let my bow down. The trail camera caught a picture of him and that is all I thought about on stand for the next two and half days, I should have shot, no I did the right thing, he is a monster, I should have shot, no I did the right thing over and over. Well after not seeing a whole lot over that next two and half days I hiked down to the other stand that we have in this spot and checked the camera which haven't been checked in a week and we were both surprised to see a picture of a big bodied 15 point that we named "sickle bar" because he had 8 points on one side and 7 on the other at 11:14 AM. I was excited because we had a daytime picture of a great deer. Well at 3:30PM on the first day in the new stand a six point came by and milled around for a while, and I catch a buck cutting across about 200 yards out. I knew it was a good one and started to pray that he head my way, which he did. He was headed down a thick draw to my east and after about 10 minutes of just catching a glimpse of an antler that little six went over to investigate. Once he saw the buck he just walked off and "Sickle Bar" stepped out of the draw but I didn't initially recognize him, just knew it was a real good buck. He was 45 yards and stopped to make a rub, which he continued rubbing on for what seemed like forever. While he was making the rub I got to take a better look very cautiously with the bino's and recognize who he was. My heart is pounding please make him come my way and not follow that six point. Well he finally committed to coming in my direction and I thought I was going to have a shot slipped my hood up and slowly moved the bow and he turns like he is going back around a tree to a different trail, so I slip the hood back, lean back against the tree so I am not skylined and put the bow in front of me. He decides to go back to the initial trail, same thing clip the release back on wait till he walks so cautiously back out, once he's past me I come to full draw while sitting and put the pin on him (27 yards), slightly quartering towards me I release. Looks like a good hit and with the arrow still in him he trots off the way he came about 50-60 yards and I'm just praying go down, go down. Well he did a quick 360 walked 10 yards his hind legs separated and he fell over! I was thrilled and thankful to have the opportunity to harvest such a great animal.