Well, my story actually starts last night. My buddy is in town for work so we decided to meet up and do a little spotlighting. We saw a bunch of doe, and a few very small bucks... nothing to exciting. After spotting we headed back to his parents house and had a few cold ones and hang out. Well, the time passed by quickly and I didn't make it home till after 1 a.m. and didn't fall asleep till around 2 a.m. Fast forward to this morning and I wake up to my cell phone blowing up with text messages. Matt was texting me about the deer he was seeing. I look at the clock and it is 7:05 a.m. I quickly rolled out of bed and threw my gear on. I knew that it would be a long shot to get in my stand quickly and quietly but I also knew that there is a huge flock of turkey in these woods that like to pass by my stand between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. every morning. I made my way out the door and across the road down into the woods as quietly as possible and I was set-up in my stand at 7:29 a.m. I pulled my cell phone out and text Matt to let him know that I was in my stand and then I text my fiance to let her know that I slept in and to see how work was going. We texted each other for a little while and at 7:55 a.m. I sent her a message saying that I was going to watch for deer and I would talk to her later. A few seconds later I heard something in a thick ravine heading my way. I stood up and watched as a buck headed out of the ditch at around 75 yards. I grabbed my grunt call and let out two quick short grunts. The buck stopped and I put my bino's on him... he appeared to have 3 points on one side and a broken main beam on the other. My heart was pumping and I watched his ears lay back and he bolted right towards my tree. He ran right under me and stopped about 10 yards behind me. I drew back but he was at a very steep quartering away angle and I decided to wait. At this point he turns back towards me and made it to 6 yards broadside. I put the pin on him and slowly squeezed the trigger. I watched my arrow hit him and it looked like a very high shot. He jumped up and then stopped. My heart sank as I thought that I had screwed up. I watched him take a few steps and I reached for another arrow, while I was doing this I saw his legs start shaking and then he tipped over... less than 5 yards from where I shot him! After gutting him I found that I hit dead center liver and the 2-blade Rage nearly cut it in half! After the season that I have had, I couldn't be more happy with this buck. I have put in some much time and effort without much to show for it. Deer sightings have been extremely low for me and loosing sole hunting permission to this property has made it worse. Wether it was small game hunters walking through the bedding areas shooting 12 gauge shotguns at squirrels or finding an arrow that obviously had been shot through a deer on the property (I am still the only one allowed to archery hunt this property).... everything has went against me. I will put a tape to him later... I'm sure he isn't going to score great but I couldn't care less, I am one happy camper right now and thats all that matters. Here are the photos...
Thanks everybody, I appreciate the kind words. They sure do, he has cuts all over him from fighting including a pretty nice gash on his back leg. I am pretty sure that of all the bucks I have shot, only 1 or 2 have had all their points!
I knew if you would keep getting your "decrepid" old butt out of bed it would come together. Nice buck BM. Way to stay at it man. Glad for ya!!:D
