I finally got a chance to get a picture up of the buck I was able to harvest this year with my smoke pole. I spent the entire fall hunting several nice deer and had one in particular I paid attention to, termed “Twinkle Tine.” I had this buck on camera all summer long until September. The buck’s left tine was very unique as was the rest of his rack. All of the points on this deer were bladed and the rack was incredibly heavy. The deer wasn’t ever going to score high but the charecter of the rack was one that most would be a fool to turn down. I passed on several deer that were at that “need another year mark” in anticipation for this guy.
As I got into the firearms season I decided to try out my smoke pole. I hadn’t seen twinkle tines on camera or in person in over three months. I was starting to question if he was still alive. But sure enough, I picked the right morning and having the rut still in swing didn’t hurt my situation.
He appeared out of a large slough area and was chasing a doe through a wheat field. The way these animals can just dissapear is simply amazing. I turned away from watching him for literally no more than five seconds. As I looked back I lost sight of him in the wide open field. After I started glassing the field I finally came across the tips of his rack above the harvested wheat field. The deer had both bedded down so tight to the ground that you could hardly see them.
The deer was in an area I could try and put a sneak on to get in position for him to possibly move my way. I had everything in my favor including the wind and decided to put the stalk on him.
After crawling for over 1/2 mile, I finally made it to a good location and I couldn’t have had more work in my favor. As I set up within a 100 yds the doe got up and started trotting my way. And of course, so did Twinkle Tine.
He came within 50 yds and I stopped him, the shot placement was perfect and within 50 yds of running Twinkle Tine was down for the count.
It was my first deer that I had captured on camera and hunted for successfully, so needless to say I was excited. I would have loved to have gotten him with the bow, but my hard work paid off regardless. I am still waiting on the deer to be scored and aged. He won’t go over 130″ but the deer’s age is reasonably easy to judge based on how heavy his rack is.
Just wanted to share a little success story from down in the SW part of the state!!
It’s always a little more special hunting and finally killing a buck that you’ve captured on camera. 
