Can someone tell me where this "Desert" unit 290 is?

[Karl Blanchard]

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[Karl Blanchard]

There's so many more but man I'm getting tired of sifting through scouting videos I'll add more once I get into more of the hunt vids so be patient

[Karl Blanchard]

An entire book could be written on my scouting season but let's get into the meat and potatoes of this story and talk about THE BUCK affectionately known as "Corndog". The evening of Aug 2nd I had scouted in an area where I had seen a bigger framed buck the weekend before. It got dark so I hiked out and was driving back to Love's where a restless 4hr night of sleep all twisted up in the back seat of my truck awaited me . Driving along scheming about what I was gonna do in the a.m. when out of the corner of my eye I catch a buck on the edge of my headlights. I get turned around and took another pass and there he was. 30ft off the road on the edge of a corn field just stuffing his big fat face with corn cobs (the deer bite off the top half and then move onto the next one). The remainder of the weekend was spent trying to get a better look at this deer with no luck.

The following weekend I was right back in the area looking. No luck. That Sunday JonathanS met me at Love's to help me look and sure enough we caught him moving from that corn and out into the sage. I got 42 seconds of video of him and knew his left side was BIG. Very low light and tall sage however really washed out his right side and we just couldn't make out exactly what he was. After he was swallowed by the sage we beat feet for a completely different area where the next best buck I had found was living and sure enough we found him too! He's a really cool wider nontypical with 8pts on his right and 8pts on his left but young and just didn't have much for mass or tine length. It was the first really good look I'd gotten at him and decided he just wasn't gonna make the short list of shooters. We called him "Trashy".

After filming trashy for a while we again moved on.  We drove past a guy standing by his truck glassing into an area where an absolutely perfect mid 160's 4x4 with eye guards was using consistently. That night when I got home I had a message on here from klickitatsteelie (Hunter) asking if that was me off of road "**********". We exchanged numbers and got to texting. Obviously he was my competition so I played my cards close to my chest at first. He told me about this big buck he was trying to figure out a location on. Someone had sent him a Pic of this big 4pt but he couldn't peg the location. He was generous enough to share the picture and sure enough, there's corn dog! Broad daylight in all his glory! My heart was racing. Another tag holder knew my buck existed and someone else out there had his location! I told Hunter that I knew the bucks location and that he was the one and only deer I had on my target list. His next words floored me....."well I'll stop looking. He's all yours. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you get him."

Who says something like that when they have their own tag......and means it!?!?! Well Hunter does.  We continue to talk through the next few weeks of scouting and quickly struck up a friendship. As opening day approached we decided we would camp together that first week and thank god we did, because it was a brutal hot week with daily temps over 95° and lows in the high 60's/low 70's. Having someone to share that misery with was a blessing. We were able to bounce ideas off of each other, recap the days events, and I'm positive we solved all the worlds problems that week.

[Karl Blanchard]

Trashy...

[Karl Blanchard]

More Trashy

[Karl Blanchard]

First real glimpse of Corn Dog

[Karl Blanchard]

And the pictures that caused enough stress that I'm positive I'll die a few years earlier than I'm supposed to

Note: I did not take these two pictures. I still don't know who did but I figured since CD is dead it's not taboo to post  If not OK I'll gladly take them down, just PM me.

[shootem]

Absolutely awesome Karl. Really well done. A testimony to what it takes to get things accomplished sometimes.

[Karl Blanchard]

After that last sighting, Corndog had become a ghost. Turned out he had moved about 1.5 miles, stripped his velvet and just fully ghosted me.  One week before the season I got a hot tip on a sighting (thanks Ryan) so I was able to focus my attention on that area. For the first 8 days of the season I dissected everything within a 2 square mile of his last known location. Deer movement consisted of about 20 min in the a.m. and even less in the p.m.  Hunter even sacrificed some of his own precious glassing sessions to assist me in my search.  Right at dark on the 8th day with Hunter by my side helping glass, I turned around to check my six and catch a big buck emerging out of a corn circle. I whip my spotter around and my jaw dropped. There he was! I wasn't crazy! He was really real! For 2 min and 51 seconds he fed along the corn and in the open but as quickly as he emerged, he disappeared back into the corn.  I think Hunter was as excited to see him as I was! Just to lay eyes on a buck of that caliber is a special thing and he knew that. 

Next morning and evening I was glued to that glassing nob but he never made another appearance.  Back at work Monday morning I begged my boss to take the following week off. He is a hunter and knows what kind of work I had put into this buck so he gave me the green light (thank you Bruce).  Big chore for the week was tracking down the landowner to try and get permission to hunt the corn.  Ryan was able to get me a contact but the land had sold. That contact put me in touch with the people leasing the ground that got me in contact with the actual landowner. I was granted permission so the game was on!

The next 5 days of work were pure hell but I made it to Friday and I was off! When I got to my glassing spot I found a ghost town. For the next 2.5 days all I saw were the same 3 doe's where previously there was a dozen bucks and another dozen doe's. The moon cast shadows all night and the deer were taking full advantage of it. Everything was nocturnal. I made the decision to save my vacation days and go back to work until that devil moon started to wain.

Once again my boss gave the ok to work a week then go back for the final 9 day stretch.  When I got to my sandy glassing nest on Friday afternoon it was about 5:15p.m. I ditched my pack, got out my spotter and started my routine. Deer were active but no corndog.  Saturday morning was the same.  Saturday evening I decided to go spot for Hunter as he was trying to pin down a buck we called "mini dog". He was very similar to corndog in configuration, including the inline coming off his main beam. It was so close to being a perfect spotter/stalker setup but we just ran out of light before the buck made it to Hunter.

Sunday morning I was on my nob well before light and as daylight began to illuminate the landscape there he was! Cautiously feeding along. For just over an hour he was out and about but always on high alert. He was a smart old buck. He was never far from the corn and he always had the wind in his favor. Looking back at notes, the days he didn't show were days that coincided with wrong wind direction.  That evening we had a good wind for me to get tight to the corn so with Hunter on the glass, I moved in. We weren't going to be able to spot and stalk this deer, or any fancy trickery.  Just a good old fashioned ambush was my only option.  Patience was going to kill this buck, not skill.  About an hour into the sit the wind died to almost nothing and it began to swirl a bit. I knew if I bumped this buck he was gonna be in the wind for good so I played it safe and backed off till I knew I wasn't gonna wind him.  Sure enough with the wind change, and only 5 min of shooting light, here he comes! Walked right past where I had been hiding.  With no play I had to just admire him from a mere 140 yards away.

The following morning I had bad wind so glassed from a far.  He was a no show. That evening Hunter went to find mini dog and with a really solid wind in my favor I got in tight again with the assumption I'd be staring at doe's and no Corndog.  With 3hrs to kill before there was any possibility of seeing him I proceeded to uncomfortably sit and play solitare on my phone.  It was almost dark and I was in the middle of a real hot hand when I caught movement from the corn edge. It was him and he was walking straight at me!!!! I slowly put away my phone, and slid my left hand down to my bow. As he got closer and closer I started to panick a bit. He's still coming and he's on a collision course..with me! If I lift to draw he's gonna bust me big time. 50 yards from me, he starts to turn to the west and slows to feed. I'm able to range and when his head is down I draw my bow. Sitting up on my knee's I settle in and send one his way. I hear the thwak and he lunges forward but immediately slows and stops again. It was dark enough that I lost the arrow in flight and unsure of the hit I range again and send another because 2 holes are better than one right!?! The second arrow hits but this time it breathed life into him and he takes off like a bolt of lightning! I drop my bow and start ranging him as he's heading into a big field and I know it's gonna be a chore to find him. He makes it about 250ish yards and falls on his face! Im left sitting in disbelief at what just transpired.  For the last 2 months this buck was either a ghost and when he did make an appearance he was as cautious as any old buck I've ever hunted.  Then one day he just decides to march out in the open without a care in the world!?!? It just didnt make sense. With darkness now fully engulfing the landscape I drop pins on where I shot from and where I think he is. Quiet as a mouse I back out and call Hunter for help. For almost 2hrs we grid for him with no luck. Long story short I over shot with my pin and we had been going in the wrong direction. We went back to the pin and start working back in the direction from which I shot from and within 30 yards of gridding Hunter all but stepped on him. 

The relief I felt cannot be put into words. This buck was absolutely incredible to see on the ground. The sheer size of his head and body was like nothing I'd ever seen! Everything about him was just massive!  One of the stipulations when the landowner granted me permission to hunt this land was no driving in (wouldn't have even if allowed) and no animal parts left behind. We momentarily tried to start dragging him towards the public sage but we couldn't even move him. So I reluctantly gutted him to make the drag easier. Well that still wasn't enough weight off so we removed the hind quarters. Made it about 100 yards before we remembered why neither of us drag animals. It sucks! So we finished boning him out and caping him then tied rope to the carcass and drug it behind us.  By now it was 1 a.m. and we were both gassed. With meat on ice we hit the sack. 4:45 came early and we headed out one last time to try for Trashy with no luck. I headed back to the kill site with trash bags to retrieve the gut pile but the coyotes had taken care of most of it. I bagged what was left and made sure everything was as undisturbed as possible.

As much as I wanted to make my rounds to some of you Moses lake guys I was in need of ice and one more cooler so I made the call to just pop smoke and roll home.

[Karl Blanchard]

Corn Dog named after his favorite food (corn) and the fact he was kinda shaped like a corndog 

Also the dreaded full moon and the boot dumping spot

[Karl Blanchard]

...

[Karl Blanchard]

All in all this hunt was just a grinder. Not really physical but mentally draining. Between the bugs, the heat, and the nomadic nature of the deer it just really tested a guy mentally.   I CANNOT thank everyone who made this hunt what it was. Mark, Jeremy, Mike, Darren, Lance, Brock, Zane, Jim, Dan, Chad, and multiple landowners who said yes when they could have said no. A very special thanks to Ryan who turned me back onto Corndog when I thought he was lost for good.

And of course the man of the hour, my brother from another mother, Hunter!  He never lost faith that we would get this done. He sacrificed many key glassing sessions to help me when he still had his own tag burning a hole in his pocket. This buck is as much his as it is mine. I have no doubt in my mind that this buck would still be ravaging corn rows if it were not for the unwavering support of all these people. The hunt kinda sucked, but the outpouring of support from so many "strangers" made this one of my most treasured hunts. I'm truly humbled by my fellow hunters. My only hope is that one day I can return the favors.

[Karl Blanchard]

Few more...

[Karl Blanchard]

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[Karl Blanchard]

The End