*****WARNING--Long read, i'm telling a story and tried to keep it short....i wont hold it against if you skip to the bottom***** So this morning, my alarm goes off, i stagger out of bed shut it off and fix a (Mixing) bowl of cheerios, and remember i have cards to check from a day or two ago. So i take my cereal into the computer room, load up the card, start scrolling through the pics and BANG! The first daytime photos of Rey Mysterio! **He got his name because he randomly....and....mysteriously showed up on my cams about 3weeks ago *** So anyways, daytime pics and he's dogging a doe in the last couple pics. This is a nice boost of confidence heading to the stand i have hunted 5 times since the 6th of October. I know it may seem like a lot, but I wasnt busting any deer goin in or out, and the card pulls on the way in revealed daytime buck activity and plenty of does rolling through, and if anything as the days...and consequently the rut...progressed i was actually seeing MORE deer each day. Back to this morning, I walked down through the field along the standing corn, turn down the road that is cut in the middle, eased out into the corner of the field, hung a scent wick sprayed with Freedom Outdoor Adventures Smokin Hot Tail Doe Estrus (may sound early for that stuff for the rest of the country, but Florida's rut is in FULL swing right now...BIG TIME) to the left of the stand 30yds from my tree and then hang another in front of the stand again at 30yds. The wind switched from a SE to a ESE as the sun rose...the deer typically come out from the W woodline/corner of the field. I know the wind sounds wrong, and i guess it was, but the deer around this crop field will enter it from just about anywhere, and i am confident in my scent control and scent elimination system and with the thermals rising I was sure i would be fine. Fast forward to 7:40am...I was checking some messages on my phone and i look up to see 2 yearlings enter the field, both of which i have seen daily. So i get some footage of them, let the camera run and continue to reply to messages. After a couple minutes I heard what i thought was a grunt, i look up and see the 2 yearlings looking back intently in the woods, i hear another grunt, and shrug it off as it is probably one of the smaller bucks i have on camera. Just to be safe i turn on my 2nd angle cam behind and above me on, check my phone again, look up and there he stands at the field's edge . I get the camera on him and recording, he starts running the doe yearling around checking to see if she was the origin of the estrus smell that had hit his nostrils. She runs off and he continues toward my stand, he is standing at 30yds, and quartering hard toward me, smelling the ground and looking around for this "Smokin Hot Doe" (see what i did there :D ), not seeing her or finding her, mainly because "she" doesnt exist, he begins to get nervous, but i have already come to full draw (and had been holding so for the 40seconds according to the footage i watched). He takes a step to his right offering a quartering too shot, but not harsh and perfectly make-able shot. (Before i get blasted for this, it is a shot i practice thoroughly and probably more than broadside shots, and is one i KNOW i can make) I settle the pin just over his elbow, and with a smooth and crisp release the arrow was sent on its way. I watch it disappear above the elbow and he runs off tail tucked, as he turns i see my arrow dangling out of the offside, just behind the last rib....perfect. Blood is pouring out, i listen as he runs out of sight...leaves crunching, twigs breaking, palmettos thrashing...CRASH and a final kick....then silence....my biggest buck was a mere 40yds away.... I JUST ARROWED THE BIGGEST BUCK OF MY LIFE!!!! To say i kept composure would be an out right lie haha. I was so stoked, fist pumping, grinning, double fist pumping....after the intial celebration i sat back down and just let out a sigh of relief....all the hard work during the summer and the unleashed fury of an underground nest of yellow jackets resulting in an onslaught of stinging madness that i faced when hanging that stand has paid off and wasnt in vain. i'll shut up now, here he is. guessing between 4.5 and 5.5yo. gonna get him aged at the taxidermist to find out for sure. Guessing him to be around 115" and while it might not seem like much to you lucky SOB's (meant lovingly) in the midwest that is a high caliber buck for down here.....back to shutting up and showing off.... ***Obsession Evolution 70#, 443gr VAP, and 100gr Rage Hypodermic (gashed top of the heart and both lungs)**** ***UPDATE: He gross scored 107 3/8*** [video=youtube_share;3cF8RgSDYWY]http://youtu.be/3cF8RgSDYWY[/video]
Thanks. Im going to work on editing everything together tomorrow, should be short...haha didnt have much time for "B-Roll". Shot him at 8am i think....sunrise was at 7:21am i believe
