This post is going to be pretty long but I wanted to get the whole story of our experience with this buck in here. On Monday evening, I got my best home state archery buck of my hunting career, and my second biggest archery buck ever. We had been getting pictures on our game cams of this deer all throughout the summer and as recently as a week before the season started. We had a bunch of velvet pictures as well as a few in hard antler. My first sit of the season was actually on the fourth day of the season. I saw 5 doe and fawns, a spike, and this buck. He didn't come out until last light but he did work his way down toward me and got to about 50 yards. It was well after shooting light. I just had to wait for him to work off so I could get down without spooking him. The second evening I saw 5 doe and fawns again, but no bucks. Evening number 3 I saw a smaller 7 point, which we have a bunch of pictures of as well, along with the buck we were after. They came out of a trail about 40 yards to my left and fed perfectly broadside for a couple of minutes. It was very windy and I was freezing cold. The conditions just weren't favorable and it wasn't worth it to me to take a shot I wasn't comfortable with so I let them walk off. After sitting for a couple of hours on evening 4, I saw the smaller 7 point coming down the hedgerow and eventually stopping roughly 60 yards to my left. He stood there like a statue for about 5 minutes, only moving to grab a quick bite to eat. He was just staring into the tall brush. I had a feeling his buddy was on his way out, and I was right. Eventually I caught his horns coming through the brush. Once he hit the field, the other one relaxed and they both started feeding. They were slowly but surely getting closer with every step they took. The bigger buck fed in front of me but behind some brush for about 15 minutes. Finally he cleared the brush and appeared broadside in front of me. I grabbed the range finder... 36 yards. I drew back and he slightly quartered away. I split my 30 and 40 yard pins and aimed for just a touch back to account for the quartering and released the arrow. The lumenok confirmed that the shot was good and the arrow found it's mark. I was pretty sure I heard him go down and could see a lot of commotion in one concentrated area of the tall brush. I called my dad and about 20 minutes and a 70 yard track job later, we found him. Here's a video of when he first stepped out. [video=youtube_share;XUaoSb4XD4U]http://youtu.be/XUaoSb4XD4U[/video] I did not get the shot on video, but I did get the 2 bucks on video about 15 minutes prior to the shot. I turned the camera off for 2 reasons. The first was that it was going to interfere with my draw if I left it where it was initially. Secondly, I lost one of the bolts that hold the camera itself and place and it got so wobbly I thought it was going to come crashing down. It has been a great start to the season and I couldn't be happier with how things worked out on Monday night.
Congrats, sometimes it is hard to not test your limits. Just goes to show there is always the possibility of a second chance.
Neat video and story. Congrats on a nice buck! He's similar to one I've gotten 3 pics of and hope to kill.
I love it when you have good history with an animal and then you're able to take it. Great job! Blessings........Pastorjim
Great Buck my NY buddy!! Great to see fellow NYers posting pics of nice bucks on the site! Nice job, he`s gonna look great on your wall!
