So here are a few pictures of my buck. This was a morning hunt. I sat on the end of a dropper ridge overlooking three drainages in a mature timber. The bucks like to run these ditches and scent check the trails that cross them. By 8:30am I had only seen a couple of little bucks and one doe. She bedded about 60 yards below me. I had not rattled for a couple of weeks because the bucks get so interested in does that they start ignoring the antlers. I knew that the rut was winding down and most does had passed the cycle but the bucks were still cruising so why not give the rattling antlers a try again before they bedded down mid morning. Good move. After the first sequence, I had small bucks in all directions. No shooters, but it let me know that calling was working again. After 15 minutes and 4 or 5 younger bucks coming in, I spotted a decent buck in the West drainage. I wanted to get a better look at him so I banged the antlers together again and he started coming straight in. He was an older buck that did not have a great rack but I was still going to shoot him, until I saw him focus his attention to the North of me and I spotted the buck I ended up shooting coming also. He is not a huge scoring deer, but I knew he was mature and I still had two tags in my pocket and time was running short. I took a chance and let the first buck walk right past me at 20 yards. The buck I killed was also coming up the end of the ridge but was flanking the first buck looking to fight. I hit a tree in the line he was taking with the range finder and got 32 yards. I drew and waited for him to hit that spot and settled the pin and gave him a grunt to stop him. He would not stop, so I kept the pins on him and slowly swung onto the front of his shoulder to lead him and let it go. He ran 40 yards down hill and stopped for less than one second before tipping over. I had taken out both lungs and cut the top off his heart with a 3 blade muzzy. I stayed in the tree for another hour and rattled in several more bucks, but nothing I wanted to shoot. One of the three year olds I rattled in went down and hooked antlers with the buck I had killed earlier. He messed with him for a full 5 minutes. Pretty cool to watch. He grosses 146 4/8 and nets 143. Not my best buck by a long shot, but I am very happy to have taken a mature buck after a long, tough season. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Congrats fletch!! Another great buck to add to your collection. Im sure you'll enjoy Thanksgiving a little bit more now.
I dislike you so much :D Happy for you despite you having to lower your standards to below "huge" haha! Nice job bud, and great story and shot!
