Well a 3 years of hide & seek with a buck I call “forks” finally closed yesterday! 3 years ago this buck showed up for the first time late in wisconsin gun season he gave me one opportunity but was never able to get a shot off. Started getting a bunch of pictures of him but he turned into a night owl ever since then. Except for a few sightings late in the season on a few super cold days right at dark. Then mid 2019 season he disappeared. Figured he had been shot by one of the neighbors but hadn’t heard anything about a buck like him being shot. So went into this season hoping he would show but as September and october passed hopes were down and was moving on to much larger deer to target on the property and was honestly heart broken because this is one of my bucket list deer to shoot ever since i was a kid! Then 3 weeks ago at 8:30am I got 2 pictures of him cruising down a run way! The chase was back on. 11/3 was going into a stand I have been seeing a lot out of deer working a scrape line. Jump him 100 yards from the stand and new for sure I was going to spend the rest of the season chasing this deer! 11/4 got done with work early rushed the the stand because I just had “that” feeling even though the temps have been in the high 60s low 70s the past few days. Get set up in a stand that was one one of those swing for the fences kinda stand. the SW wind was the best wind for it but there’s no real good wind because deer come from every where. About 4:30 send a snapchat to a buddy saying “I think I picked the wrong stand for the night” 4:34 I hear crashing and grunting out of a pine thicket behind me. Out comes running a doe with a small spike on her tail! As my dad and grandpa have always told me “the big buck usually will never be the first one” and man was that true! 4:39 Here he comes running in right past the base of my stand! 16 yards turns slight quartering away!Got him to stop and let an arrow fly! Then my heart sank. I thought the shot looked perfect, but 3 bounds I watched the arrow fly out. Sat till dark having even more bucks come through searching for the doe hand full of them being some very nice 3.5yo! Was going to get down back out wait a few hours then goin in with help to start looking but as i’m walking out 40 yards from my stand there he was laying on the trail to the stand! Not my biggest buck but one of my favorites! I will take a unique one that I have history with any day! Pictures just don’t give hike justice 5-5/8” bases 18.5” wide will put a tape to him soon!
I complement your persistence on following the buck for three years. It boils down to you and the buck and you won!
