Adam
Revels
Selma, NC
Johnston, NC
10/10/24
6:30pm
T/C muzzleloader
120yd
Elevated
Ran 100yards
41
Long range scouting with binoculars all summer. Many cell cam pics too
10
No
Evening
I started getting pictures of this buck in July. He stood out with an abnormal point at the base of his left beam, which made him a 10 pointer. I would frequently watch him from about 300 yards from a high place overlooking a bean field he would feed in most evenings. He would typically walk out of a pine thicket into the short beans, entering the field in roughly the same spot, so in early August I hung a bow stand nearby. As the summer dragged on and the beans got really tall, I started seeing him out there really early in the evening out in the middle of the field, usually only seeing his antlers above the beans. I would get out there early to try and see where he was coming out of the woods but he would usually just materialize out of nowhere; his antlers just anppearing all of a sudden. After this happened everyday for weeks, I concluded that he often was bedded in the bean field and would just stand up and start feeding. He seemed to stay in those beans day and night. That’s when I started calling him Frijolé. I still regularly got photos of him in front of my bow stand in the evenings and figured I could get a chance at him if I had the right wind direction. I really had my heart set on taking a mature buck with a bow so when bow season opened I was there in the stand several days the first week and a half, but did not see him until my 5th sit….and it was right before I got in the stand. He was running through the beans about 200 yards away with another buck. The wind was in my favor but I was convinced he had seen me when I came in. After that day, an optimal wind direction was just not happening for me. I started only getting photos of him after dark and was then even more convinced he was onto me. Once black powder season opened I decided to set down the bow and hunted from a tower stand a few hundred yards from the bow stand. I had 2 hunts without a single sighting of a deer. Then finally we had a good cold front coming in the second week of black powder season and I decided I would try again one morning before work. Well, when I got home the evening before that morning hunt I planned for, I decided to go ahead and get in an evening hunt. The temperature had already started dropping.
I had made the right choice. Early in my sit in the tower stand, I saw a nice young 8 pointer and 2 does. Then, 35 minutes before dark, I glass some does coming out under my bow stand. Frijolé was right behind them. He looked like a king strolling out there, walking past the does and feeding his way toward me. He was farther than I was comfortable shooting him so I waited to see if he would close the distance by 100 yards or so. By the time he finally got into a good range, 8 minutes had passed. At that point I was a nervous wreck. He got to about 120 yards and fed a little and gave me a decent shot. I felt good about the shot but he didn’t act like he had been hit. He did however run straight out into the beans as if he was startled and looking for safety, He bounded through the beans maybe 100 yards and looked around. All I could see was his head. A few seconds later he disappeared, straight down. I got down and went home to get the atv and came back to look for him. There was no blood at the shot site. I went into the beans where I thought I last saw him and didn’t find him. I really felt like he should be down in there somewhere. I called a very good friend, also named Adam, and told him I had shot Frijolé and he offered to come help track him. We picked up about where I left off and started walking down the bean rows with a few in between us. On the first pass back, I was able to yell “There he is!”
My buddy was stoked for me and took some good pictures before helping me get him home. He even stayed to help clean him. Sharing it all with someone made for an even better experience than it would have been if I had done it all alone. Late that night while reflecting and giving thanks to the Lord for those blessings, I concluded that it’s hard to beat a combo of special bucks, good friends and the great outdoors.
