It all came together for me on 11-1-15, and it only took 48 years First of all, this is going to be long and pic heavy so I apologize in advance. I'll post short version first I grunted, he came running, 27 yd shot, 50 yard dash, deer in freezer Now to the good stuff.. So my wife kept me up until 2:30 Halloween night. It's kind of become our annual date night after we let the boy trick or treat. Alarm rang at 4:30 At 7:30 two yearlings came and ate acorns under my stand. I had every intention of killing a big doe so I was excited at the possibility of big mamma showing up. Sure enough she did, 10 minutes later, but never gave me a good shot. She walked away and the fawns stayed around. Five minutes later she came back and still did not offer a good shot. They all fed under one white oak for another 5 minutes then slipped away. The doe was definitely looking like she was ready to get rid of young uns. About 10 minutes later I heard the doe out in the pine thicket snorting/bleating, a strange noise that I've heard before but not often. She did that for a few minutes, probably 20 times and I thought, "4pt, I bet there is a buck harassing her, why don't you turn that can over and see what happens." I did that twice and then remembered that, for some reason, I had dug out my old MADD grunt tube. I say for some reason because I have NEVER EVER had any luck with a grunt tube and until today thought it was only a desperation move. Nevertheless, I whipped it out and gave two short, loud grunts. I had just put it away and heard a loud series of crashes at my 2:00 position. When I looked over to see what it was, I noticed a nice sized tree being whipped around violently at about 80 yards out. I couldn't see what was thrashing that tree but knew it couldn't be a squirrel or a bird. I stood up and grabbed my bow and started fumbling around trying to hook on my release. Just as I got the release on the loop, I he made a bee-line to me on a steady trot. All I could see was horns coming through the brush, I knew it was a good deer but I didn't have time to look to see how good. In an instant I drew my bow and settled my 30 pin in the only opening I was going to have. As luck would have it, he stepped into the opening and locked up. I was on him in a blink of an eye and touched off. I saw the arrow hit exactly where I was aiming, 3/4 ways up the shoulder. He ran 10 yards broadside and turned into the pine thicket. When he turned I could see the blood pouring out of the exit, which was low under the right front leg. I heard him crash and then heard him gasping/coughing. I knew I had hit him good, I knew I had seen the exit perfect and blood pouring, and I knew that I heard him crash and gasping but I still had that odd feeling of "how am I going to screw this up from here?" I just knew he had ran out there with that doe and hooked up with her and was going to run for miles. You see, I didn't get the nickname Mr4pt because I killed deer like this one. I waited 16 hours (45 minutes in real time) then got down to find my arrow. Arrow was covering in pink, bubbly blood from spitfire to knock. There was a massive amount of blood at point of impact and as far as the eye could see. At that point, I knew it was a done deal. I followed blood for 10 yards, all the while praying to God to let him be as good as I thought he was....and he was. The deer had only gone less than 50 yards. From the time I grunted until the time I shot him was less than 1 minute. There is no doubt in my mind that if I hadn't had that grunt tube I would have never laid eyes on this deer. 16.75" inside spread, 11" G2's both split, 1 split G3, and a broken off brow tine.
Great story. Great shot. Great buck! Big congrats. It may have been a long time coming but it's something you'll never forget. Just goes to show that sleeping in never pays! Most guys would've called it on 2 hours sleep. I'll bet you're glad you didn't.
Well done! Great shot and Hell of a deer and a big congrats. Now hopefully it doesn't take another 48 years till it happens again!
That's really cool, congrats. That black face on that buck is rather unique, I don't know where you're at but is it possible it's either a hybrid cross between a whitetail and a blacktail or a mule deer? The split G2's also seem to sort of hint that may be the case. Whatever the reason, covet that cape and make sure the taxidermist puts a priority on preservation of that face coloration, that's freaking sweet.
