Rack Magazine

After braving the sauna and no-see-um hatchery that is LBL in September, Alabamians rush home to throw money at a taxidermist.

Jacob Lamar of Athens, Alabama, knows the value of homework.

Before he and his brother, Adam, drove up to hunt Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, he pored over maps, photos and even walked a portion of the 171,280-acre tract to determine where to pin his hopes for 2015.

LBL is a vast peninsula between Kentucky and Barkley lakes. The Kentucky and Tennessee state line divides it.

The gorgeous tract is known for its wildlife, and it draws a lot of hunters. The Lamars — no strangers to public lands — thought there was not only enough land for everybody, but they also felt it offered the real potential for a wallhanger.

When you apply their logic, it wasn’t a difficult choice.

“Kentucky has a history of producing big bucks,” Jacob said. “The drive to Kentucky isn’t far, the license costs less than it does in Illinois, and Kentucky had a bow season starting the first week of September.”

The brothers and some buddies began scouting the place in the summer. They were aware that LBL often has tremendous hunting pressure, but they figured most hunters might stay home during the early season since the temperature is often still in the 90s. The mosquitoes and gnats are bad there, too. And visibility is diminished because the trees haven’t shed their leaves.

Jacob and his buddies specialize in taking big deer off large tracts of public ground, however.

“For every hour we spend hunting, we put in about five hours of studying topo maps and aerial photos and scouting on the ground,” Jacob said. “The LBL maps show agricultural and soybean fields. We have learned that concentrating our efforts near agricultural fields is one of the best ways to find big September bucks.”

Their first reconnaissance trip was in July. They rode the roads in the morning to learn the lay of the 180 acres they wanted to target.

“Later in the afternoon, we put boots on the ground,” Jacob said. “I discovered one soybean field a long distance from any public access road. To take a mature buck on public land, you have to walk away from access roads.”

Jacob and Adam approached the soybean field together.

“When we went over a little rise, Adam, who was 30 yards in front of me, froze, looked back at me and whispered, ‘I just saw a 170-inch buck!’

“Neither of us had seen a deer that big except on TV,” he continued. “I scanned the field with my binoculars and spotted a bachelor group of bucks in the soybeans. I estimated two of them would score in the 130s and another in the mid-140s. And there were others. But I didn’t see the 170-incher.

“When Adam asked me if I’d seen the 170, I told him, ‘No,’ but kept watching. One of the bucks came to attention, and the entire herd of bachelors moved out of the field. That’s when I saw the 170. I whispered to Adam, ‘Oh, my gosh! That’s a true monster buck … in full velvet.’”

Back at the motel that night, the Lamars decided to return the next day at high noon and put out several trail cameras.

Jacob, Adam and their hunting buddies returned to LBL two weeks later. The Lamars went to that same soybean field late in the afternoon and spotted the bachelor group and the big buck again. Once the deer left the field, the guys checked their trail cameras and saw they’d gotten good trail camera pictures of the big buck and five other ones.

“Our hunting friends also discovered and patterned two other bachelor groups of mature bucks in other LBL areas,” Jacob said. “We all identified places where we felt we had a better-than-average chance to take mature bucks with our bows.”

On opening day, the Lamars hunted in treestands about 10 yards apart. Adam had a video camera and his bow. He was hoping to video Jacob taking the big buck, though they agreed that whoever had a clear shot should take it.

“Late in the afternoon, we heard a deer coming down the well used trail and realized the others would follow,” Jacob said.

A big 6-pointer got behind Jacob and Adam, smelled them and walked back into the woods. No other deer showed. However, just as night fell, the brothers heard more deer moving down the trail and into the soybeans.

Slowly, carefully and quietly they got down from their trees and took the long way back to their vehicles to avoid spooking the bucks.

On Sept. 5, the second day of Kentucky’s 2015 archery season, Adam and Jacob split up with Adam sitting in the stand where Jacob had sat previously, and Jacob taking a stand positioned where they’d heard the other deer after dark entering the soybean field.

The brothers agreed again that the person who had the shot should take it.

About 45 minutes before the end of legal shooting time, Jacob spotted a big buck moving down the trail 20 yards from the edge of the soybean field through the woods.

“Apparently, the big deer was going to water at a small pond about 40 yards to my left,” Jacob said. “Once the buck walked into one of my shooting lanes about 20 yards from my stand, I grunted to stop it, and it took one last step.

“When I shot, I knew I’d hit the deer low. The buck wheeled around, made two big leaps and was gone. I was upset and remained in my stand.

“About 15 minutes later, I heard Adam grunt to stop a deer and heard the crisp whack an arrow would make when it entered a deer. After dark, I went over to his stand.

“He was very excited and thought he’d made a good hit on a buck, but he didn’t know where the deer went,” Jacob said.

The Lamars left their bucks overnight to return the following day. Neither Jacob nor Adam slept much that night.

At daybreak the next morning, the brothers began by blood-trailing Adam’s deer. After they recovered the 131-inch 8-pointer, they followed Jacob’s blood trail for 40 yards and recovered his monster.

They field-dressed and loaded both deer, and then headed south, back to Paul’s Taxidermy Shop in Rogersville, Alabama. They were concerned for the velvet on the big buck’s antlers.

This article was published in the June 2017 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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