Rack Magazine

Listen to the Locals

Listen to the Locals

By Dale Weddle

The man told them all the big deer were shot during rainy-nasty weather …

After waiting an hour at his truck, Wayne Jordan returned to where he’d launched an arrow at the huge drop-tined buck. Everything had happened so quickly, he wasn’t sure if he’d even connected.

“I saw the deer wobble a little bit as it ran off,” Wayne said. “So I was hoping for the best.”

When he picked up his arrow at the edge of the soybean field, however, the shaft was as clean as it had been when it left his bow.

“I was heartbroken,” Wayne said. “I don’t think I said two words to my buddies the rest of the night.”

For some hunters, missing a world-class buck might’ve been the precursor to retirement, but not for Wayne. He became even more determined.

The 46-year-old lives in Jacksonville, Fla., but his job repairing dents for insurance companies keeps him on the road most of the time. As a bonus, his travels have allowed him to hunt in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Colorado and, most recently, Kentucky.

“Several years back, I met Mark Frost. Back in the day, Mark was involved in subleasing hunting properties; had eight or 10 parcels going at one time,” Wayne said. “Although he hadn’t been that active in 2012, he still knew the ropes on finding good hunting spots.”

Wayne wanted one in Kentucky.

“I’d hunted Kentucky — Trigg County — for the first time in 2011,” he said. “I saw more bucks in those five days than I usually see other places in a whole season.”

Naturally, Wayne turned to Mark, who began scouring the Internet for prospective leases. He found the perfect farm in mid-August. It encompassed 360 acres in Christian County, about an hour from Nashville, where Wayne was working at the time.

The land included 70 acres of soybeans, some CRP and hardwoods, a no-brainer, especially since it was a reasonable commute.

Wayne invited Mark and a coworker, Mike Knapik, to hunt with him last fall. The three men drove up from Nashville during the last week of August and set out four trail cameras.

When they returned and checked the units a few days later, they pulled an image of a buck with a long drop tine on the right side of an enormous rack.

“As soon as I saw that picture, I decided I wasn’t going to shoot a deer unless it was THAT one,” Wayne said.

“While planning for the bow opener in September, we decided against hunting in the mornings because it was so easy to get busted by the deer in the fields if you tried to sneak in to a stand before daylight,” he said. “It was really hard to be there and not go out, but we stuck to the plan.

“We also gave the farm a rest every couple of days, not wanting to put too much pressure on the place,” Wayne added.

On Thursday evening of opening week, Wayne was hunting out of a permanent stand overlooking soybeans. Soon after a nice 140-class 8-pointer appeared, he heard another deer splash in a nearby creek. When he turned to look, the drop-tined buck was only 20 yards from him.

“Without thinking much about it, I just slung an arrow at it and watched it run away,” he said. “I thought the deer might have staggered, but then it might have just been dodging stuff with that huge rack.”

If it did stagger, it was a misstep. That was Wayne’s first encounter.

“From that point on, we started getting photographs of the buck on trail cams almost every day,” he said. “It would often look right at the camera. About half the photos — we probably got about 40 — were taken during the daytime, too. That buck wasn’t nocturnal like most deer that size.

“Mark also saw the buck at the very back of the farm about 45 minutes before dark one day, but it was from 200 yards.

“We decided, with gun season coming in, we needed to hunt the buck from daylight ’til dark. I knew there was going to be a lot of pressure around, and someone on an adjoining property might get him.

“I came up on a Thursday to get ready and get some rest before the season opened. Mark couldn’t make the hunt, so it was just going to be me and Mike.

Listen to the Locals“On Saturday morning, Mike shot a nice 8-pointer. The farmer also started mowing a grass field and sowing wheat next to where I was hunting. Since the deer had been using that area for cover, my confidence sank. But I decided I wasn’t going to change stands.

“When we took Mike’s deer to the processor, the weather forecast for the next couple of days was terrible. We talked to a local hunter about the buck I was hunting, and he said, ‘When it’s rainy-nasty weather here, that’s when we take most of our big deer. If you’re going to kill that deer, it’s going to be in this weather.’

“Sunday afternoon, the wind was blowing about 40 miles per hour. I looked down at one point and saw a big cavity in the bottom of the tree I was in, so I actually got down and hunted the rest of shooting light on the ground.

“On Veterans Day, Nov. 15, I woke up at 5:00 and looked outside. I saw this big American flag across from where we were staying, standing straight out, and I got back in bed.

“Mike finally got me up about 45 minutes before daylight. If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have made it out that morning. He just kept saying, ‘Come on, you’ve got to get up!’

“After a 20-minute drive, we arrived at the farm when dawn was breaking, which was way late for us. We rode a golf cart to a creek, and then I walked for almost an hour to the back side of the farm,” Wayne added.

Since he’d already taken his one buck, Mike was there to scout and fill his doe tag.

“The wind had died down a little and was in my face, but it was still raining pretty good,” Wayne said. “I must have had 8 inches of mud on my boots when I came up over a ridge and saw the big buck with four does at about 180 yards. It couldn’t decide which one it wanted to chase.”

The wild-eyed buck’s tongue was hanging out, and it was totally distracted. Even so, Wayne didn’t have time to reach the nearest tree to use it as a rest, so he took the off-handed shot and hit the deer in the shoulder.

“That it dropped in its tracks is a blessing, what with all that rain,” he said. “I instantly called Mike and said, ‘I got him.’ He thought I was pulling his leg, at first, because he had his rain hood up and hadn’t heard the shot.”

Seeing, of course, is believing.

Hunter: Wayne Jordan
BTR Score: 191
Centerfire Rifle
Irregular

– Photo by Dale Weddle

This article was published in the July 2014 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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