Well our seeking phase may have started right before my eyes tonight. I have been off all week and other than a alot does and one real nice buck at 100 yards I have not seen much for antlers. I decided to push a bedding area hard tonight with the hopes of calling something out. Around 4:30 a spike steps out and proceeds to make a scrape in front of me, and as he is going out of sight up a ridge I give a few short grunts like a buck chasing a doe. A few minutes later I hear ALOT of grunts, so many that I think someone is hunting near me and not doing a very good job of calling. I finally notice movement across a small clearing and decide to grunt. I get an answer, just like calling a tom. I proceed to call in a 110" 8pt. We are a bow only county so letting him go is worth it at this point in the year. My only concern is the unbelievable amount of poaching (more on that later). After he gets downwind and eases off I look off to the left and see the high rack buck. We have this deer on camera 3 years ago (35mm) when he was a high rack, thick 8pt. I believe I also have one side of his shed, but it was broken by the bush hog so it is hard to tell. The pictures were taken 200 yards east of where I shot him, and the shed was found 100 yards west of this spot. We have been hoping to get a shot as we are sure he is getting up there in age. I knew his rack would not score well, but everything about him said older deer. His front shouders were bigger than the rear, he had a sagging belly...etc. I drew 15 yards before my opening and he stopped 1 yard shy behind some trees and looked right at me. I smiled and thought the game is up and I am about to let down to his flag bounding away. He turned, trotted about 10 yards and turned back one last time. By the time he stopped the arrow was on its way. He was on the way down as he left my sight and I heard him crash through water about 60 yards away. I coule see my arrow glowing red, and it was soaked. I called my uncle and told him the high rack buck was done. I waited for him to get home and drive over and then we began the track. About 100 yards later there he was. I am thrilled with this deer as his rack is very unique and will make a great euro mount. We were going to take his jaw bone and send it off, but when we opened his mount his teeth were down to the gums so we know he is pretty old just as we suspected. I want to add that I think you guys targeting mature bucks is very cool, and the reason I shot this deer is because of all that I have learned on here from you guys. I would probably have passed him 3 years ago and chalked him up to a small rack buck, end of story. But because of BH.C and HNI I knew immeditaly that he was on the other end of the age spectrum. When we were gutting him we found very fresh shotgun pellets (bow only county, and ironic that we had the game wardens over with the mech deer tonight). I am not a mature buck hunter, I will shoot a 140" 2yr old over a smaller 7 year old everytime they come out side by side...but again I am so thrilled about this "older" buck. The way he moved through the woods taking in everything, that is why I thought I was done, but some good back cover made him take one last look. Sorry for the long post, and hopefully my remaining tag will put me behind a bruiser. The pics suck because our processor (and former hunting buddy) is a ****** bag and was half lit and rushing us. He is a good guy when sober, but he is also the only processor for 30 miles so we just deal with it. I did get a couple with me and the bow as well, I will post those when I get the rack back and score it. Thanks for reading. I saw the comments about GA and our small deer, I will post some trail cam pics soon, or if Rob is reading feel free to post the trailcam buck. Good luck and be safe to everyone with a tag still in their pocket.
Better shot of the arrow. Look at those home made wraps. Nothing like a cheap arse to realize he has unused wraps laying around with arrows that are already fletched.
So your the other guy from GA :D Well man, congrats on your buck. Im a stickler for racks with character and that one my friend has some Wild how the beams come straight up out of his noggin instead of outward. love the twist to. congrats man!!
Congrats! I would think that would be just as rewarding (if not more) than killing a high scoring buck.
Nice rack you got there.....I mean the deer. All joking aside, congrats. I know you've hunted hard for that one and I'm glad you got him.
