Patience pays off with the biggest buck I've ever shot

This is the ONLY mature buck I have seen on the hoof this entire hunting season. I had been getting pretty discouraged by only seeing does and year and a half old bucks. So much so that I was questioning all the work that I had put into to land management. I just decided to keep pushing myself to get out there, telling myself that I can't kill one from the couch. And my fortune turned on a dime. Here's synopsis from my day in the field:

Friday, November 15th. Last day of the early archery season in Missouri. Saturday starts the annual rifle season, so I was hoping to take one before that started. Set the alarm to go off at 4:30, got up, showered, dressed and headed in. It's about a 200 yard walk out my back to my stand. As I'm walking In, I busted about 6-8 deer in my hay field. Luckily they just bounded off and didn't blow at me, so I wasn't too concerned. I stepped into to timber and dropped down into the creek bottom, followed it to the little feeder creek that runs right to the base of my tree. I was able to sneak in pretty quiet, and climbed up my tree. The timber was alive, there were deer moving all around. I slowly and quietly got my camera gear all set up and brought up my bow and settled until daylight. Just a little after shooting light, a small buck pushed a doe past my stand. At a little after 7:00 am, I caught some movement to the southwest. I could see that it was a buck pushing a doe, but wasn't sure what he was, so I gave him a couple grunts. Not sure if he heard me because he didn't respond at all, but about 5 minutes later I could hear a buck grunting to the east of me. By the sound of the grunt, I could tell it was a more mature buck than that small buck that had just came through grunting. It was a much deeper sound. I had planted some Egyptian wheat to use a screen over there, but the does have been bedding in it. I've seen multiple young bucks go over and bump does out of there. I could see some movement through the timber, but couldn't make out what deer it was. I pulled out my grunt call and gave two quick grunts right in his direction. He was out at about 50 yards when I grunted. Immediately he turned and started heading my way. He walked the edge of the timber and I was pretty certain where he was going to end up, so I got the camera set. At about 30 yards out, while he was still behind some brush, I came to full draw and I waited. He stayed right on the edge of the timber. He was walking right at me, and walked out right in front of my stand and then he stopped. I had some branches in the way, so I waited. Luckily he only paused and started walking again. He took a couple more steps and I stopped him with a vocal "mehhh." He stopped and looked in my direction just as I released the arrow. I didn't see the impact, but he gave a mule kick and took off runnI ing to the south. He made it about 40 yards before he slowed and fell. He stood back up and made it about 15 more yards before he crashed, and thrashed for about 10 seconds. Then, silence! I knew right then and there that I had just killed the biggest buck of my life. Stayed in the stand for another 45 minutes or so, then lowered down all my stuff. As I was just about to step onto the ladder sticks, I caught some movement and saw four tom turkeys on the other side of the ditch. While I was watching them, had another small buck come through the plot. I was finally able to get down, went over and checked out the arrow which was a complete pass through. It was completely coated with blood, just like I was hoping to see. I did notice some white hair on it, but I was shooting from a steep angle, as the shot was less than 15 yards. I went ahead and backed out for a couple more hours, just to be on the safe side. I waited for my wife to get home from taking our daughter to school, we ate breakfast then headed down. She was running the camera for the recovery. Even though I had a pretty good idea where he was, we went ahead and followed the blood trail. I'm color blind and have a heck of a time on a blood trail, but this was the best blood trail I've ever had. I had no trouble locating the blood because there was a lot of it. Followed it to the last place I saw him, he turned to the left and just as I had thought, he was piled up about 15 yards out. Once I got my hands on him, my suspicions were confirmed. This was Rocky JR. I've had this buck on trail cams since June, when he was just putting on his main frame. Lots of pictures, none of which were in the daylight. This buck was usually in on camera around 2:00am. Yesterday was a busy day, by the time I got him out, took our hero shots, gutted him, transported him, caped him out, quartered and deboned him, it was 10:30. Tough day, but well worth it! Put the tape to him and came up with 148 5/8 gross. Almost 30 inches larger than any of my other bucks. I still need to edit the video and I'll post that once I have that done.

 

Big buck, congrats.


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Awesome deer...it only takes one to make a great year!

 

What an awesome buck! Great story and great pictures. It's good to see all the hard work and positive attitude paid off. Congratulations!

 

Nice Buck. He's gonna look good on a wall.

 

Congrats on a very nice buck!!

 

Great buck man, looks like it paid off

 

Congratulations! He is nice

 

Congrats, it only takes one!

 

That dudes a brute. Congrats

 

Mehhh! ...SssWACK!

Great read and Congratulations!

 

Very cool!! Congrats on a great buck!

 

Congrats he is a great buck! Way to hang in there and make it happen. Can't beat shooting a giant and making PT change his avatar in the same year

 

Hell of a buck.

 

Great deer congrats!!

 

nice buck!! congrats!!

 

congrats on an awesome buck. Scoot

 

Very Nice... Congrats on a beautiful buck

 

Nice!! Congrats! Hes a stud

 

Congrats.. that's one fine buck..