Boonerville's 2017-2018 Semi-Live Season thread

He has some crazy long g3s with alot of mass in them. Looks very clean rack, any sticker points?

 

just a big clean 10...he has starts of some junk on 3 of his tines, but nothing over an inch. his g3's and beam length are crazy...I bet his left beam is 26"

 

The antler in the foot must have been good luck!

 

Congrats Booner. Awesome that your wife was with you also.

 

Good deal man, that's a good looking buck

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Congrats boon! That's an awesome buck, i feel proud just after following this thread. Thanks for taking us along!

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Congratulations on a great buck!


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Great buck!!

 

Congrats on a great buck!

 

Well here he is guys, 165 2/8"

 

Dangit I overbid LOL. Congrats again bud!

 

So the story...

In 2016 I had no velvet pictures of this buck. I first saw him on October 20th, 2016. I was hunting my largest property, which is very wide open and has very few trees. This buck came out behind a group of does a long way away right before dark and started cruising a ridge in an alfalfa field. I moved a blind over to where I saw him, and between October 20th and November 1st I saw him 5 times. Each time he came out right before dark and would go to the same crest on the hill and stand there at dusk...with his rack silhouetted...hence his name, Hartford (Like the insurance buck). He would always come out in a different spot, but always ended up on the same ridge. it was too late in the season to go moving and erecting blinds, so I just hunted him the best I could in my existing spots. I almost killed him in December during a shotgun hunt with my wife. he blitzed by the blind chasing a doe and stopped behind the one cedar tree that was big enough to block his vitals. Then on January 9th, my last hunt of the year, I saw him again, on the same ridge in the alfalfa field. I was waiting for him to turn broadside, and a dump truck spooked him from the road and he ran away. A few minutes later is when I ended up shooting my 143" 8 point last year. last year I estimated him to be at least 6 1/2 years old.

So in 2017 he was definitely on my mind. he kept showing up on trail cameras in January and into early February...then he disappeared. Once again, no pictures all summer...I mean not one single velvet picture. Then on September 7th, I caught him on one camera. I was pretty stoked to see he had moved back on to the property. I had a hunch this buck would do the same thing he did last year, so 3 weeks ago I put an elevated popup blind on top of the ridge in the alfalfa where I saw him so many times last year. this was purely based on observed movement from previous year and a gut feeling he would do the same thing this year. leading up to opening day, the winds had been out of the NW for several days and it had been raining. On Sunday, the wind switched to out of the SSE, and the weather broke. the moon was also rising at 5:30 pm and was visible in the sky.

I sat the blind with the hopes of seeing good deer movement and observing. At 5:30 does started to come into the field. About 6:25 the first buck showed up, a small 8 point. I watched the filed fill up with more and more deer. By 7:00, at least 50 deer were in the field. I looked to my left and saw a giant rack standing on the crest of the ridge in the field. I pulled up my binos...It was Hartford. he was at 70 yards and facing me. He slowly fed towards me as the minutes ticked away. he stopped to spar with 2 150 inch bucks. I was getting nervous as light was fading fast. He separated from the other bucks and started to turn broadside. I ranged him at 45 yards. I drew my bow and got ready to shoot. Right before I was going to shoot he turned and started walking away. I had to get off my chair while at full draw and lean out to shoot through the far side window of the blind. I grunted with my mouth to stop him and he froze. I knew he had take 3 or 4 steps away from when he was at 45 yards. So I held my 40 pin right at the top of his back and sent an arrow. I saw my Nockturnal hit him low and forward and he wheeled and ran over the hill.

After calming down, waiting for the field to clear of deer, and going to town to calm down and eat, I came back to look for blood. The forst spot of blood was pick and foamy. he only made it 75 yards. My broadhead took the top off of his heart and the bottom of both lungs. he is actually a bit smaller than he was last year I think...but I don't care. he is an awesome fully mature Iowa Giant. I scored him at 165 2/8".

I feel very fortunate and blessed to have this opportunity. I spend so many hours away from my family doing this, and spend honestly way more than I probably should fueling this obsession. To not only have my well laid plan come together, but on the very first hunt of the year, is a truly rewarding feeling. You always hope and plan for success...yet it is still a surprise when it happens. Moments like this are what I live for. This buck has validated my move to Iowa and the sacrifices I have made to do it.

Now it's on to the next one! I have another bow tag, so I don't have to quit hunting yet. I have a few more bucks on my radar. Hopefuly I can put another plan together on one in the coming weeks.

 

Here he is last season in 2016

 

Here are the pictures I got of him this year when he showed back up.

 

Closer than me I way under bid...I thought he'd maybe break 115" at best. Booner has a great tape measure, must be a left handed metric.

 

are millimeters not the same thing as inches?

 

I don't know, I have never studied the foul mess that is the metric system. All I know is that it's an evil abomination.

 

Don't forget Boones from the mountains of NC. Counting and adding probably isn't a strong suit.


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Haha, well I can't really count that against him, I'm from Missouri so....

 

You're talking about plussing right? I can plus good! It gets tricky if I go beyond that.