Adventures: Kansas

As November neared, Travis Keith and I had finished all our preparatory work for our Kansas’ hunt and were antsy to spend some time in a treestand. Meanwhile, as early-November slid by, my wife Peggie was spending a good deal of her time situated in treestands smack-dab in the middle of her public-land hunting spot. She’d already passed up shot opportunities on numerous small bucks, holding out for the “big ‘un,” and on November 7, her number finally came up!

By the end of October, both my hunting partner Travis Keith and I knew that
there were a couple of 140-class bucks in our hunting area, as evidenced by a
few trail camera pictures that we’d collected of them. I went to reassess my wife Peggie’s hunting spot on public land and I noticed new, large rubs … and a huge, damp scrape dished out of the earth!

In the heartland, the summer of 2011 was one to remember — and one to hopefully, quickly forget! Drought and extreme temperatures combined to make it a very rough season on
whitetails. Of the 900 acres we had permission to hunt, 800 acres were open prairie grasslands. There was a small drainage that coursed its way
through the property, which provided a few trees and a little brush here and there — other than that, we had no cover to hold a decent population of deer. We knew we had our work cut out for us!

In the conclusion of this seven-part series — firearm season was fast approaching and I was thoroughly disgusted with my lack of big buck sightings. I was having action-packed hunts every day in Kansas, but for the life of me, a buck
over 140 inches was not to be seen. Man, there was something
seriously wrong with this picture!

I’d worked with my wife Peg a great deal in the preseason, getting her ready for a
shooting opportunity like the one she’d just experienced. By all rights, she
should have been prepared, but then again, there was that old nemesis “buck
fever” that had to be contended with in the treestand. Had she passed the grade?

When “Stickers” reached the fence, he stopped and surveyed his domain for a short moment, then began walking down the fence parallel to my location. When he went behind a small patch of brush, I quietly and quickly let out a short grunt on my call. The monarch jumped the fence, trotted up to within 5 yards of the tree that I was in, and stopped!

Bowhunting is supposed to be about good times
spent in the great outdoors, with good friends. In this seven-part series,
you’ll find plenty of that, as my buddies and I chase Kansas bucks on a do-it-yourself budget.