Frank DeVuono – New York
I’ve been using Imperial Whitetail Clover for several years and I
feel it, along with good deer management, has made this story possible and
helped produce the bucks you see in the photographs. The deer use the
Imperial Clover daily.
I had high hopes for the hunting season in New York. In late August I
caught several bucks on my Cam Tracker camera. The non-typical is an
eleven point that grossed 131 and the typical is an eleven point
that grossed 171. I tried to pattern both of these bucks along
with a third buck that looked to be a solid 150 buck over the next two
months.
I arrowed the non-typical on October 15th at 9:00. The buck
weighed 216 pounds dressed and grossed 131.
I now had a month wait for our slug gun season. On November 20th, the
opening day of slug gun season. I was hunting a ground blind overlooking
an old scrub field. I had seen two 8-points early in the morning and
several does. At 2:00 pm I saw the monster typical 11-point chasing a doe.
They were in the thick scrub field 800 yards away. There was good cover
between us so I decided to go after him. The buck continued to chase the
doe back and forth through the old scrub field. I stalked and jogged my
way to cut the distance between us. I got within 150 yards of them,
kneeled in the scrub field and steadied my gun on my left knee. I was just
about to shoot, when I decided to try grunting the doe. I grunted and she
started coming right at me. She winded me at about 75 yards and she began
to quarter to her left. The buck followed and I squeezed. The buck
dropped, but got back up and ran into a barrage of shots. I hit the
monster a little low in the shoulder and had to shake the hand of the
hunter who put the buck down. The buck grossed 171 with little deductions. This whole episode took its toll on me.
Over the next couple weeks, I hunted passing up several marginal bucks
waiting for an opportunity at a mature on. On December 9th my chance came.
I did a session of horn rattling and shortly after I saw the huge
white-racked buck cutting the center of a golden rod field between the
wood line and me. I focused my range finder on the center of the golden
rod field where I thought the buck would cross, and it read 125 yards. I
got a stable rest and waited for the buck to cross and squeezed. The buck
flinched up and ran about 80 yards and fell. I ran through the golden rod
and recovered a beautiful 10-point that grossed 157. This put an
end to my story buck season.
