5 1/2 I added another pic of him. Those were taken with a homebrew camera made from an Olympus camera. 2008
man that thing is a pig, great pics. I was going to say by his head (not antlers) he looked to be older then 4.5 easy
I was 30 feet in tree stand I hit him in top left maybe a bit hight. Arrow was a pass through exited out bottom of his chest, I thought for sure I had myself a giant! Still bothering me, not that i dont have my wall hanger, it bothers me that he might have died way away from where I hunt . I looked for him for 3 day. Blood trail was great, just went cold. Hopefully I run into him come next October! Thanks for reading, GROMMEL.
First pic is me freshening up a mock scrape in early afternoon, my stand is just off camera in that tree to the far left at less than 15 feet. Second pic is at last light the same day with a monster-bodied 8-9 point (kicker off the left g2 that might have counted) as I was at full draw for a solid minute, unable to shoot due to that leafy branch right above him which covered his entire vitals. He came in like a ghost completely silent until he was directly below me. Once he trotted off (with a tree trunk covering him the whole way) I sat in the stand for almost a half hour after dark, just shaking my head and trying not to puke. I never saw him or got any trail cam pics of him again.
Great thread!! I've got two that I can think of. 1 was in 2011. I thought I put a good shot on a 10pt buck and watched him run off. I later jumped him (5 hours later and never saw him again till the landowner texted me a month later. He shot him and found a perfect pass through below the spine. In 2010, I shot at this buck and heard a loud crack. This is him about a month and a half later. Notice his front left shoulder.
Grom- hopefully he made it through and didnt die some where you couldnt find him. Always a bummer when that happens. dnood- pretty cool that he came in after freshining the scrape up, bummer you were not able to get a shot off. Hopefully he made it through the year and you will get a second chance at himwhen hes bigger. Pops- I have heard of the shot known as the no man zone its one of those spots where eveything just has to be in bad luck for it not to hit any vitals or major arteries. so close with both of those bucks thats a bummer
yeah, I hope he did make it. He came in right on my drag line trail...I was watching what I think was a doe about 25 yards in front of me, but I have no idea how I didn't hear him until it was too late. He pawed on the scrape a bit and licked the branch, but didn't pee on it. I had a clear view of his upper neck and head, but wasn't going to take that shot even at that range. That was the one and only time that particular buck appeared on one of our cameras. I go back and forth as to whether or not he's young and on the upswing or old and on downside. His body looked long and wide when he was standing underneath me, and he's obviously got plenty of antler height; but not much mass. I hope to do some shed hunting here by the end of next month, we'll see what turns up. It was our first season hunting that property. The parcel hunts a little odd, it's 40 acres w/tons of activity but it seems to be a corridor property without many homebodies. We had 6 different cams on the parcel and rarely got the same buck more than 3-4 times all season. But we got tons of buck pics total, with quite a few shooters (for us, anyway) and a couple of real dozers in the 160 class.
Hard to tell with just that pic but im gonna say he looks 3 1/2 maybe 4 1/2. Sounds like its a good place just not holding them on the property. Planning on doing some work this off season to improve it and hopefully hold them on there? If your getting those kinds of deer on camera I would be doing everything I can to get them to stick around longer.
Sorry I just saw your reply. Yeah, I was talking w/ my buddy (it's his property) about our management plans. This spring we're going to put in a water tank or two, and clear a couple small food plots. The property is pretty much only my early season weekend gig. Water's scarce in that area early season so we're banking on that. I take the first 2 weeks of November off to hunt a different property in Mid Michigan with the fam every year, and can't miss that. The bucks aren't as big but time with the fam can't be beat.
Great idea for a thread. I have a few myself. I chased this buck for a few years when i first started bowhunting, got pictures of him in 2003, 2004 and 2006. Never knew what happened to him, rumor was he got shot. He was probably 6.5 in the picture below...what a giant. Second one i chased...got pictures of him in 2008 and 2009. Possibly a picture of him declining in 2010 (ill never know for sure). He disappeared as well: I hunted those 2 buck exclusively as a young hunter from 2007-2010. Learned alot, but passed alot of bucks i wish i had taken. The newest chapter of my hunting career involves this guy: We believe him to be a 4.5 year old this year. We never had him on camera until this fall, but we found one of his sheds last year, and another this year.
wonder what ripped that boy up in the 09/05/10 pic? He''s still in velvet so wasn't fighting another buck. Quite a bit of blood.
huh, I guess so. I knew they bled some but no idea that much. Got it all the way back on his neck. Cool looking bucks.
dnood- Where about in Michigan do you hunt? Your not kidding about the bucks are smaller haha big ones are far and few between here but there around just gotta work a lot harder for them. Siman- All of those are studs, where you guys ever able to lay a eye on them? Hopefully you guys will be able to knock that one down next year, hes going to be a real stud.
