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Hunter: Jarod Hawkins
Animal: 158" Whitetail
Location: Ohio
Weapon: PSE Bow Madness

This hunt began during the 2009 season when Ben and I were in a ground blind and an 8 pt. came out of the woods to our right. We both thought this deer was 3 1/2 and would benefit of another years growth. I decided to pass on him. We referred to him as the Basket 8. I ended up harvesting a great 10 pt on film and it is the Bonus hunt on Dream Season 13 DVD. I kept my Reconyx Cameras out for the rest of the season and knew that he was still in the area and was able to find both of his sheds.

I began getting ready for season in July. I put out several Reconyx Cameras, began food plot preparation, and hung 3 Big Game stands. I got several pictures of bucks and kept track of them using the new BuckView mapping software from Reconyx. In late August I began planting my Biologic plots. I choose to plant Trophy Oats, Green Patch, and Outfitters Blend. Everything was set. All I needed was the weather to cooperate. Needless to say it was dry, however the Biologic did germinate and with every shower we would get the plots would green up. It wasn't long until the deer were feeding on whatever was sprouting up and I was getting more and more pictures of deer including the Basket 8. All I could do was wait.

Since My family and Ben started Wolf Creek Outfitters our hunting time has been limited. We were really wanting to get the job done early so we could focus completely on our clients. We accomplished this during the 2009 season with Ben killing Slammer on opening day and then he filmed me killing my big 10 pt.. We are very fortunate to have two good friends that gave up their hunting and said they would come and film us this year so we could try and acccompish this goal again. So it was set. Ben would hunt with Kenny Bevans and I would hunt with James Mugrage.

James and I got to my hunting area early afternoon, got dressed and sprayed down. We took our time going to the stand and without breaking a sweat or spooking any deer we were ready. It wasn't long before there were deer starting to feed in the Biologic. It was the normal hunt with small bucks and does with their yearlings coming out first. Then out of the timber the Basket 8 appeared and he looked impressive. I quickly started to range him. In no time he was walking toward our stand and without hesitation I was holding my PSE Bow Madness. I made sure James was ready and I let the rage tipped carbon express arrow fly. Passing this buck last year definitely paid off. Thanks to James for the great camera work and for sharing such a memorable opening day hunt.

Though I have harvested a great buck, our story hopefully has not ended. We still have a goal set! With only 2 weeks till clients start arriving, we still have Ben, Melody, Tim and Candice to go. Hopefully this story will be continued.....

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