Just wanted to say hello from Kansas. Here is my '09 Bow kill. Shot him at 43 yards. Gross 176 1/8" Net 163 3/8" Here is one with my brother's and my deer
Well I will give you all the full story. This year has been tough. I have seen several 150" class bucks and have been within 60 yards of 4 of them. Persistence finally paid off. This is the same buck that I posted previously about. I was 45 yards from him and waited for 3 hours on my knees for him to stand up. When he did, I thought I make a great shot only to find that I hit a yucca stick about 5 yards in front of him, just plain bad luck. First time I saw this deer was Nov. 11th. Including yesterday, I have seen him laying down 5 times and have not been able to make a perfect stalk and shot, that is until yesterday. November 20th I sat in a canyon where this deer had been seen several times, but only saw a few small bucks, no big boy. i decided to get on top, watch a couple cut milo fields and look at the tops of the canyons he was hanging around in. He was known to lay down on the flat tops of these canyons, where it is almost impossible to get within 200 yards. At 10am I see him with a doe and a one horner in a cut milo field. Of course he ran the one horner of and laid down with his doe in the middle of a half section cut milo field. The canyons I need him to go in were west about a 1/2 mile. So I take of across this huge milo field with my bow to try and push him into a canyon where I can work on him. I get to about 400 yards straight east of him and start walking towards him to push him west, into the canyons. This is where everything goes wrong. Instead of jumping the fence and going into the canyons like most deer would do, do decides to run parallel to me north. I could not for the life of me get him to turn west but he would never run very far, just a couple hundred yards then he would mess with his doe again until I caught up to him and then he would continue north. So I keep walking, I cross the cut milo, then it turns to planted wheat, then wheat stubble and back into milo stalks (which is about 4 miles). By this time I am freaking pissed off, all he has to do is jump a little cattle fence and run into a canyon to get away from me, but he would not do it. What saved me is that the fence jogs east about a quarter mile, thus he would have had to get closer to me to not have to jump the fence. His doe finally jumps the fence and he follows her. I watched him go into a canyon, about a 1/8 mile wide and 1/4 long at the large end. I gave him some time to settle down and forget about me before I started in. I slowly start to check the cut and find him mounting his doe, at the large end of the canyon which is about 100 yards deep, way to far for a shot. I was hoping he would lay on the south side of the canyon so with the wind right I could position myself for a shot. Then comes more problems. There is about 10 mule does and a decent mule buck in the same friggin cut. He actually at one time mounted a mule doe which I found to be quite interesting. He then decides to lay down in the middle of all these freaking, 28 eyes to see me with, the SOB. I knew I had no chance of getting close enough for a shot with all these deer around, so I decided I would get on the side of the small part of the canyon, just in case when he decide to leave he might walk by me. I set up for about a 50 yard shot at the furthest point he could go and sat down and waited along the rim rock of the canyon. This was about 1pm. I could see his horns and a couple mule does from where I was sitting so if something happened I could make a move if I needed to. About 45 minutes passed and all the mule deer decided they where going to leave, going away from me. The whitetail buck and his doe stood up and just kind of stood there and watched these mule deer walk off but they did not leave themselves. Now only 4 eyes to see me with. I decided to make a move and get closer, I get the wind right but my shadow is exactly wrong. As I make my stock and see him and his doe and they have actually gotten 20-30 yards closer to my side of the canyon. The first opportunity I had I ranged him at 63 yards. Possible, but not the shot I want at all. I gave it a little time as they were walking toward the smaller end of the canyon. I backed off and went to a small out-cropping of rim rock and see them again. They where both looking away from me so I slowly raise up and range him, 48 yards, ARC tells me to shoot 43 yards. I crouched again but my rangefinder in my pocket put my release on my bow and raised up again slowly, this time he is looking up the canyon, to risky. I have it a few seconds and raised up again, he his stand head to head with his doe and both looking away. Pulled the PSE back, went through my shot routine, center my 40 yard pin a touch high and squeezed one off. Perfect shot, clean pass though, and he died in my line of sight------unbelievable. I sat down and trying to not break into tears. Nothing is better than knowing all your hard work paid of with a monster and personal best by almost 30" of bone. Here he is. What a brute.
Thanks all. Here is the score sheet for those wanting to know the numbers. Score: Inside Spread 17" LEFT Right Mainbeam 25 4/8" Mainbeam 23" G1 6 6/8" G1 5 3/8" G2 7 2/8" G2 5 3/8" G3 10 4/8" G3 9 6/8" G4 6 6/8" G4 3 7/8" G5 1 5/8" G5 1 4/8" H1 4 7/8" H1 4 6/8" H2 4 4/8" H2 4 5/8" H3 5" H3 5 2/8" H4 5 3/8" H4 5 4/8" H5 5" H5 4 7/8" Abnormal 1 1/8" 2 2/8" TOTAL 176 1/8"
