"2 Full Velvet's in ND"
Hey everyone! Well the first hunt of the season was definitely a slam-dunk!! Pat and I both came home with full velvet bucks riding in the Chevy! Driven TV Team Member Chad Nolte and cameraman Shane Indrebo also hunted the North Dakota opener with Eldon Christmann where they shot a dandy 11 pointer on opening night! Way to go guys! Season opened out there on August 31 and it was game time! The first night on stand we had 6 different shooters 70 to 80 yards in front of us feeding out in the middle of the Navy Bean field we were hunting on! Close that night, but no cigar!
The next morning we went in and put a set up on the other side of the field just waiting for a North wind evening! We waited until the 3rd night of hunting and you betcha we got a North wind and we were on em'! Pat was up in the tree getting the camera equipment set up and I glassed over in the famous corner that all of the Mac Daddies were coming out of and sure enough there stood a nice 9 pointer coming out to feed at 3:00!! Pat hurried and got the rest of the stuff set up and eventually the buck fed back into the woods to bed down so I climbed up trying to be as quiet as possible knowing the potential of this stand! We got set up and about 10 minutes later we had a few does and fawns and one small buck feeding out in the field and what happens next, well all I can say is HOLY COW! I looked in the corner and all I saw was a full velvet rack sky lined coming out into the field to feed! This wasn't even one of the bucks we had seen the previous nights!
We had the wind right in our face and I knew that if he followed the same path of the bucks the night before I was going to have my first full velvet buck! Sure enough, he fed down our side of the field offering me a 23 yard shot. After the shot, we looked at the footage and decided to wait until the following morning to recover him because I knew my shot was a little far back so to be safe we slipped out quietly and came in the next morning. We only had to blood trail him 100 yards and I got my hands wrapped around MR. MAC DADDY himself, a beautiful full velvet 8-pointer with stickers off his bases on both sides! What an awesome and memorable hunt and to have my favorite cameraman in the tree filming me made it so much better!
But that was only the beginning, because 3 nights later Pat was now hunting and yours truly was behind the camera for the first time filming! Sure enough, North wind so we decided to of course go back to the killing tree and what do you know, another beautiful 8-pointer in Full Velvet followed the same path my buck did and Pat put the smack down on him at 15 yards!! He made a beautiful shot on him only running 60 yards and yet another North Dakota buck finding a new home in Minnesota!
Two Velvet bucks out of the same tree, there’s not much more a hunter can ask for! We had the Chevy locked and loaded and headed home with two full velvet bucks in the back! Our next hunt is in Minnesota at Fair Chase Outfitters where I will be up to bat again so stay tuned, hopefully number 2 for the girls will be going down!
Stay Driven,
Pat & Nicole