Hot-N-Ready spray brought buck in grunting, nose flaring
Jonathan Chermak has killed some quality deer over the past few years on his farm in Mecklenburg County, N.C., but he killed his biggest one yet while bowhunting on Nov. 17. It was a stud in every way. The 9-point, 5 1/2-year-old buck weighed 226 pounds, and has been green-scored at 143 7/8 inches.
It wasn’t Chermak’s first encounter with the big buck, and he pulled out all the stops to get a shot at it. Aside from traditional sign tracking, he saw the deer in the flesh on multiple occasions this season, including one day when the buck appeared directly below his stand.
“I saw it in person several times this year. During one hunt, he showed up right under my stand, but I didn’t have my bow in my hand, and some does were out in front of the stand on high alert, so I didn’t want to spook him off. I held off and waited for another day,” he said.
That was a good move, as the old buck continued on with life as normal, and hiding out in heavy cover during daylight hours until Chermak pulled a fast one on it.
“He had become so nocturnal that I didn’t know if I would get another look at him in the daylight, so I began following a scrape line he was working and spraying some doe estrus scent, hoping it would draw him out during legal shooting hours,” he said.
His plan worked. After using the doe estrus scent for several days, Chermak got in the stand on the 17th with the wind blowing directly toward where he knew the buck would enter the area. He released some Black Widow Deer Lures Hot-N-Ready spray, which the wind carried straight to the trail. Forty-five minutes after daylight, the big buck stepped out grunting with its nose flared.
The deer came straight in and offered Charmak a broadside shot at 10 yards with his Hoyt bow. He sent a Swhacker broadhead into the vitals of the buck, which ran about 160 yards through an open field before falling.
“The key was finding his scrape line and where he was entering the field. Spraying the doe estrus scent got him primed and when he caught wind of the Hot-N-Ready spray, he just dropped his defenses and came in. It was a lot of work to get to that point, but it made the hunt that day smooth,” he said.
The buck’s rack is 7 1/2 inches at the base, and it carries 4 inches of mass throughout. It has a very good chance at making the Pope and Young books after the 60 day mandatory drying period.
