The one buck I successfully patterned and harvested Sent from my SM-N915V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
This is the one we were after. We only saw him once. I watched him chase a doe on the last day of our season. All I had was a camera in my hand since I was already tagged out with a smaller buck and a doe.
I cataloged a lot of good ones this year and know what happened to most of them. In this photo, the one to the far left is a big 6. My 17 year old daughter killed him with a muzzleloader during our youth season in late September. The one in the far back is the 11 pointer that I killed on November 4th with my bow. The one in the center is a good buck that I never saw while hunting, but I know he made it because I just got new photos of him last week. Then there are all of the others This buck here measured right at about 148". I had many trail cam photos of him along with photos of him fighting with the buck in the next photo down. He was killed by a friend of mine with a bow in mid October, 2 1/2 miles from where I had photos of him the day before. The taxi aged him at 5 1/2 years old. He was a tank of a deer and when field dressed bottomed out my buddy's 250# scale. This nice buck was killed by a neighbor who is a great guy and whom I share deer info with. He killed this deer with a shotgun on our opening weekend in mid November. Here is photo of those two bucks from above fighting the night before the bigger of the two was killed in mid October. This buck was the holy grail for me this year. I wanted to kill this buck so bad and had hundreds of pictures of him. He lived all summer 200 yards behind the back door of my house. He was so predictable and several times during the summer, I walked within yards of him while checking trail cams. On September 19th he walked in front of my camera for the last time and from best I can tell moved across the main road in front of my house. In mid October a nice young man put an arrow through him for his first bow kill ever. By the time he had killed him, he had knocked two of his 13 points off. I shared all of my trail cam photos with him and we talked about deer hunting for a couple hours one afternoon. I was bummed about me not getting a shot at this buck, but was extremely happy for him. I felt like I knew this wide short tine 10 almost as well as the 13 pointer above. This buck was a regular all summer. On September 18th he dropped off my radar for good. I have not seen him since and have not heard if anyone killed him through my network of neighbors. I'd love to have him show up again on camera now that seasons are winding down as I think he would be incredible next year given his current width. Oh the mass! The 8 had my attention all summer as well, just given the mass that he carried. However, when he and I finally crossed paths in the first days of November, I found that his entire left side was broken up. He had had some summer damage to that side as you can see in velvet, but at some point in October he broke his tines completely off on that side. He had disappeared from camera for three weeks and when he crossed my path while hunting I was bummed. I haven't seen a photo of him in about 4 weeks, so I am not sure if he made it through our long gun/muzzleloader seasons here. I hope he did because he will be a dandy next year. Then there is this guy ... Booner material. I never had velvet pictures of him. Then he just showed up one day in early October for two nights of photos. I put my eyes on him while at home recovering from shoulder surgery in mid November. He was standing in my side yard next to my barn with a doe. This photo of him is from the night our gun season ended, so I know for a fact he made it through the relentless gun season. I have no photos of him since and have not heard if anyone got him during muzzleloader. It will be interesting to see if he made it though because right now he is an 18 pointer who we estimate has 180" or more of bone on that head. Just a bruit of a deer.
Never did see this buck in person. Isn't it safe to say that a buck in velvet is usually from the immediate area?
Hit him high on November 4th, he survived. Still getting him on trail camera. Ive come to the conclusion that after 3 years, 2 shots, full draw another time and half a dozen other encounters that im just not going to kill him. Long live Captain Hook.
All of the big boys are dead by me. Awesome 2016 for the neighborhood. First buck I got last years shed from and has been a regular and the one I wanted the most. Wifes aunt shot it for her first buck during gun season here on the farm. 161"/156" after duductions (scored by a b+c guy) .................................................................................................. I had this one on cam since 2014. Neighbor got it, his second buck ever: .................................................................................................................. Other neighbor got this one: ...................................................................................................... Other property which is 20 acres. I was excited to get this on cam throughout the summer but he got it opening weekend of Bow season.
