Dandy buck and great mount! Looks to be an early season cape? I understand the wife part! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well, I'm just going to apologize for the length of this response right off the bat... I've never actually put the story down like this for anyone to read and I'm not a writer nor do I claim to be but here it goes... So full disclosure, this was my first bow kill and I did have a little history with this buck. I've gun hunted since I was 12 and killed a few good bucks but really started getting into bowhunting in '14. I was hunting on a 80 acre piece of property that my company owned that I was able to hunt on. I work for an oil & gas company so the only hunting that's allowed is Bow (no firearms allowed) and luckily just a couple people knew about it. I only had 1 stand and 1 camera on the place and hunted Sparingly that season. There was a heavy 12 pt (150 ish) that I really was after but there was also a nice 8 pt that I would've been happy with too. Probably around 120-125 inch buck. Like I said I didn't get to hunt but a hand full of times that season and I had a chance at a couple other smaller bucks but was holding out for something bigger. I never was able to lay eyes on either of those 2 bucks but I had tons of trail cam pics of the 8pt. Fast forward to 2015 and the addiction had kicked into high gear. A work buddy was hunting the place also now and we got busy hanging a couple more stands, a blind and had 3 trail cameras out. I had hundreds of pics of this buck starting in late August and it didn't take long to realize this was the 125" 8pt from the previous year but he had put on almost 30" of antler! It was obvious that this was his home and that he was the big dog in the area. There was another mature short tined 12 pt. we had some pics of but he wasn't a regular like the other buck, so I set my sights on this deer and worked my butt off to try and learn his patterns, borderline obsessing over this giant buck! When Oct. rolled around my buddy and I had a plan put together that there were only 2 bucks that we would kill and that we would only hunt when the wind was right for each spot. Oct. 19 was the second time I was able to get out there and the blind that I wanted to be in wasn't right for the South wind that afternoon, so I sat in a ladder stand that was our only setup for a South wind. It was roughly 200yds east of the blind. The ladder stand was setup on the edge of an alfalfa field and almost in the center of the property. About 20 min. before the sun started disappearing into the distance I noticed a buck to the west that had stepped out into the field not 30 yds in front of that pop up blind. I knew almost immediately that it was the buck I was after. I started second guessing myself thinking that I should've been in the blind even though I knew it wasn't the right call. I watched him for about 10 min. and all of a sudden he turned and started heading east along the field edge, making a bee line in my direction. It only took him about 3-4 min. to close the distance but it felt like 30 min. for me. I knew the path he was going to take and had several spots ranged ahead of time and as soon as he cleared at 12 yds, I centered the pin right behind the shoulder and let an Easton arrow fly. Upon impact he spun a 180 and took off back across the alfalfa field and didn't make it 80yds before he went down in clear view. There was no struggle or suffering, when he went down, it was done. I knew he was dead but I forced myself to wait 15 min. before getting down just to be safe. Longest 15min. of my life!! At this point I started losing my mind and kept looking around and just trying to come to grips as to what had just happened! I got down and went over to the point of impact and found the front half of my arrow with the broadhead. The arrow had broken off and the tip of the G5 Montec broad head was bent. There was no blood trail what so ever so I'm thankful that it was not needed to recover the animal. It turned out that it was a heart shot and the arrow deflected off of the off side shoulder and exited just behind the shoulder and broke off when the deer reacted to the shot. When I field dressed him, part of the arrow was still through his heart which I though was really cool. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me and one that I will never ever forget. I have never had such an adrenaline rush in my whole life to this point. Hopefully I get to experience that feeling again someday, but I know for sure that if I wasn't addicted to bow hunting before that day I was a goner after that. The buck grossed at 154 7/8 as a non typical because of all the kickers around the brow tines. 13 scoreable pts. 4 1/2 yrs old. And just so everyone knows, my wife while she might not be a fan of having a deer head on the wall has accepted it and thankfully still puts up with my crap on a daily basis. I wanted it to hang in the living room and she thought it should go in the garage so we compromised and he has a spot in the office of the new house. Hard to have a successful marriage without some compromise here and there.
That's an incredible story, and your first bow kill too! Maybe you could throw some of that magic my way as I haven't gotten a buck yet.
I knew a buck like that had an awesome story to go with! Congrats again! Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
