140-class, 8-point buck followed scent trail straight to hunter
Jason Lindler of Lexington, South Carolina has beaten the bushes looking for a trophy buck for over 30 years. And on Oct. 26, a day of relentless rain and wind, Lindler finally found one. He killed the biggest deer of his life — an eight-point, 140-class trophy that evening.
But it was during that morning that Lindler, soaked-to-the-bone from hunting during a storm that covered the entire state, had a revelation in his Newberry County tree stand that helped him lay out a successful plan.
“I hunted until lunchtime in the soaking rain and it gave me some time to think because the deer sure weren’t moving in all that wind and rain. Mr. Charlie’s Stand, as we called it, got destroyed by the two recent hurricanes,” Lindler said. “Everybody on the club has always said it was in a good area, but nobody had taken the time to straighten it up and get it into hunting condition.”
Just after lunchtime, Lindler spent some time whipping that stand back into shape and re-buckled it back to the tree. He also put out 80 pounds of corn. And after getting everything set up, he sat there for a few minutes to take a look around. When a doe walked up, he took it as a good sign and it sealed the deal on where he would hunt that afternoon.
The stand backs up to the thickest woods on their 300-acre tract and deer had been moving all week during the full moon and the cooler weather conditions. He knew he had a good chance at seeing some deer, especially after the dismal weather conditions of that morning.
When Lindler went back for the afternoon hunt, he was dragging a rag soaked with Tink’s 69 Doe-n-Heat Attractant behind him down one of the two shooting lanes. The bucks were rutting hard and if an attractant would ever work, today would be an optimal time to pull out all the stops. Nobody had hunted this stand all year, and tanks to their library of trail cam photos, he knew some big bucks were around.
He got settled just after 5 p.m. in hopes of some action. And 15 minutes later, three does came out.
“I almost shot one of the does because we love grilling deer sausage and I hadn’t killed a deer yet this year,” he said.
He was glad he didn’t because just over an hour later at 6:27 p.m., the big eight pointer stepped out onto the right shooting lane. The buck had his nose to the ground, locked onto Lindler’s trail of scent attractant and was making a b-line to the base of the ladder following the hunter’s exact path to the stand.
“He was coming down the lane and it looked like he had a grocery cart on his head,” he said. “I shot him between the shoulder blades at 100 yards and dropped him.”
“Everybody loved that stand and something that morning told me to fix it and give it a whirl. I am glad I did,” he said.
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