Kansas--short hunt--BBD!

On November 3rd I left the woods of PA to make my annual pilgrammage to the Meccas of whitetail hunters--Kansas and then Ohio. I arrived in Kansas on Nov. 4th and went to set some stands in some of my favorite locations from years past. I arrived at my first location to find some Foresters working in the area and it was littered with machinery. Went to my second spot and the 30 mph NW "breeze" was the ONLY wind that nixed this location. It was now 2 PM and I needed to get a stand in. A quick call to a landowner friend confirmed that I could hunt his property. I hadn't hunted it in about 4 years but he assured me that no one else had either.

I got to the property and made my way up the ridge to an old stand location that always had deer activity around it. The area was littered with scrapes and rubs and acorns! I found a suitable tree but, with the wind direction, knew I needed to be pretty high up to avoid detection so....up I went. I usually set my stands around 18 feet. This one I set at 23 feet. Although it may not seem like a lot, 23 feet up in a spindly oak tree produces a [censored] of a ride in a 30-40 mph wind! I sat for the first 2 hours because I was a bit terrified of being blown out of the tree. Anyone that has hunted Kansas knows exactly what I mean! The wind started to subside around 5 PM and I started to see my first deer filtering down off the ridge behind me. At 5:30 I had a big mature doe come out of the cedars to my right and make her way up the ridge. She was followed about 10 minutes later by a huge bodied 8 point with a zinc white rack that I would have been happpy to take. Instead of following her up the ridge he circled back into the cedars, ignoring my best calling!

10 minutes later I hear running in the cedars in front of me and a fawn busts out bouncing around like it was on crack. She was clearly having fun running back and forth around mom and jumping around in the leaves. As mom made her way to my left with the fawn that obviously needed some Ritalin I heard more footsteps in the cedars 20 yards in front of me. I saw him walking with his head down out of the cedars but couldn't really tell if he was a shooter or not because he was headed directly at me. As he cleared the cedars and turned to my left he lifted his head up and the sun shined brightly off his rack. Tall tines, lots of em, good beams, big body and broadside at 20 yds! I drew as he walked behind an oak tree and let him get well into the opening before touching the trigger of my release. At the shot he hunched and kicked and I could clearly see a large (Rage 3 blade) hole a little farther back than I usually like. Total time in the stand---2 1/2 hours. He bounded 40 yards through a grassy field before entering a cedar thicket. I heard him stop in the cedars. Seconds later I hear him walking back towards me and the doe and fawns that were contentedly feeding to my left. At about 40 yards I hear him go down hard but cannot see him because of the cedar thicket. I decided to wait until dark to get down because I still wasn't sure of the hit--even though I clearly heard him hit the ground. Just as darkness approached and I was prepping to climb down I heard a buck walking down the ridge behind me. He walked 20 yards in front of me but all I could see was a shape---too dark to tell antlers. He hit my buck's trail and followed him into the cedars. I heard him circle my downed buck once and then he proceeded to beat the crap out of him! From what I can tell he hit my deer 2 separate times and moved him about 20 feet from his original resting place. The aggressor only left when he pushed my deer into a ditch!
Sorry for the long story. Here he is! He's a 10 point scoring 128. Certainly not the best the area can produce but good enough for me. Now off to Ohio!