First off, I want to apologize for the poor picture quality. It was raining pretty hard, and since the deer crossed the river, It was kinda late when we got him out. It's very unfortunate that we didn't get field pics, but there's nothing we could have done about that. The Story: This was not just a one man job. A friend of mine here at UofL owns the farm we were hunting on, and we worked together scouting out stand placements. We got a really late start this year, and didn't even hang this stand until two weeks ago. The stand was hung on a small incline, 20 yards off of a logging road, turned heavy deer trail. The trail runs along the bed of a river which forces a funnel between the small ridge where the stand is, a field behind it, a thicket to the south, and the river on the other side. When we first looked at this area a couple of weeks ago, it had several scrapes along it. Also, due to the very steep and deep walls to the river, there was only one place they could cross, which has been used very heavily. We hung the stand about thirty yards to the north of this crossing. Due to the wind, we were unable to hunt the stand until Thursday night. Zack, the aforementioned landowner, hunted the stand that evening. He saw nine deer total, a few small bucks pestering the hell out of does, as well as two really nice 2.5 yr olds. He let them both walk because we are only looking for 3.5 and older. The next morning, we hunted another farm up the road and saw a couple of does and a BB. That afternoon we went back to the other farm, and we were in the tree by 1:30. Zack hunted the a stand along a power line, and I hunted the stand on the river bed. The woods were pretty quiet until a drizzle started at about 5:15. At that time I saw a little buck chase five does on the other side of the river. While I was watching these deer through my binocs, and eliminating my peripheral vision, I heard a splash in the river 40 yds in front of me. I looked down to see a very attractive 8 pointer had walked right past my stand and down the crossing, and I missed it because I was looking through my binocs. I was kicking myself for letting that happen because I was pretty sure he was a 3.5 yr. old. However, he may have been 2.5 and I hope so because he will be a brute next year. He just seemed to have really dark tarsal glands for 2.5. At any rate, I was sitting there, very upset with myself for letting, what I was thinking at the time was a shooter, pass right by me. Then, at about 5:30, I see a deer running through a pasture about 200 yds on the other side of the river. Even though I had to look through the woods, and at that distance, I could still tell without my binocs that he was a good buck. He was running through the field with his nose on the ground. Realizing that he would not come by my stand, I grabbed my true talker and grunted at him loud and aggressively. He immediately looked up in my direction, and then turned and started running right toward my stand. Without hesitation he jumped into the river, swam across, and ran up my side just 30 yards from my stand. His head was c0cked back and swinging from side to side looking for the buck that had challenged him. He turned and came down the trail in my direction still searching intently for the intruder. I bleated at him and he stopped behind some brush in front of my stand. I waited for him to take one more step and then let it fly. I then watched him run back across the river and go down before he could get up the other side, not more than 50 yds from the shot. This is my first story, so sorry if it's a little scattered. Again, I wish I had some good field pics, but we did all we could do. As the title indicates, this is my first bowkill, and my biggest buck to date. Let me know what you guys think he will score. Zack with a good head on view.
This is just a guess but I'd say low to mid 150's. He has long tines, and they look fairly symmetrical. Congrats on a great buck!
