I've been in the woods since Tuesday all day. I pretty much came out to sleep and that was about it (I love making my own schedule \:D ). I had not seen any shooter bucks until Saturday morning when I shot this monster. The deer were showing pretty good signs of the rut coming soon. So I decided I would hunt as much as possible and try to harvest an old buck before he got locked down with a doe. Friday afternoon I decoyed in 3 different young bucks and had a blast, but what I saw on that trip was an important piece of information that would come in handy for Saturday. I watched two fawns by themselves, which got me excited. I recognized the fawns as they come from an old doe that I have watched for years on the farm. She only has half a tail and always has. Her twin sister also had half a tail but I think she is dead. I haven't seen her in about a year or two. But anyway I know this old doe very well and where she beds almost daily. Knowing this I changed my whole strategy for Saturday and I hunted a completely different area than what I had planned on hunting. At daylight on Saturday I slowly worked my way into her bedding area and found her with three young bucks. No mature bucks were around so I decided I would go get in a tripod above the area on some powerlines and watch for anything crossing in search of either her or another doe. I figured if I had a deer cross too far away I could cut it off since the ground was wet. I got in the tripod around 8 and watched a real good 3.5 year old make a scrape. It was just one of those magical mornings. Around 8:30 I heard a shot but thought it came from behind me but about 10 minutes later my mom called and she had just taken her first deer ever with my dad. I was really excited for her since she has hunted with us for 3 years and has passed up countless deer. She really wanted to harvest an old mature buck for her first one. I think I finally talked some sense into her before the season this year. I just wanted her to harvest a deer, buck or doe. I was afraid she would give up if she didn't take something.
From my stand I was seeing good deer movement and had been watching the old doe and the three young bucks running around below me about 500 yards away. I just happened to look to my east and saw something run across the powerlines. It looked like a huge rack sticking up above the brush, but I wasn't sure. What I saw had crossed atleast 400 yards from me, and I wasn't looking through optics. I really thought I was just seeing things since I had been in the woods so much and began to argue with myself about it! LOL \:D After thinking about it for about 5 minutes I decided that I had seen something and I needed to find out what it was. I climbed down as fast as possible, left my backpack and took off running to cut off what ever it was. I needed to get to the bottom of a big valley to have my scent correct, but I knew I wasn't going to make it. I stopped half way and just froze behind a tree. I just had that sense that something was close. I looked to my right and saw this big buck galloping directly toward me. He was gonna cross below me but I knew he would smell me first. He hit my scent and locked up. He slid to a stop and reared up on his hind legs to spin around and run off and I was able to get my muzzleloader on him and shoot him as he spun. He went 60 yards and piled up. I knew exactly what deer I had shot but I didn't think he was as big as he really was. He grew on me as I walked up. His body was massive, he weighed 240lbs live weight, and his neck was just impressive. I think he'll score 150ish even though he is narrow. His beams are really long and he has tons of mass. I just really can't believe it. I only had one picture of this deer all year. We saw him twice last year but he was busted all up. This year he's busted off a brow tine and the tip of the G-3 on this left side. I think if I found the sheds of this deer you'd think it was from two different bucks. He's unique indeed. I thought someone shot him last year cause he just vanished but he just showed up a week ago on my Reconyx.
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