She’s so sad ....... 9 pt

JJ3

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West Tennessee, USA
Not really. Actually pretty ecstatic about tagging out!

We hunted yesterday in the monsoon that hit west Tennessee. Sat for 3 hrs in a pop up yesterday morning after the lightening passed and didn't see anything. Took a break and went back in the afternoon setting the pop up in a different spot.

About 4:15 in pouring rain, the first deer came out — a yearling and then a doe about 300 yards out. Since we hadn't seen anything else in 5 hrs of sitting, my daughter decided she was going to try to shoot the doe. Just as she was getting all set to pull the trigger I spotted another deer walking out, so she waited. It stepped out from behind a small willow and I saw that it was a good buck — he put his head down and started eating at 250yards. She cleaned the water off her scope again and got a steady prop on her knee and fired. I was watching through binoculars and saw him fall to his front knees after the bullet impact and then start to run. He ran about 50 yards and then stopped and just stood there. She shot a second time and he dropped right there at 300 yards on the range finder. The first shot was through the lungs, second shot lungs plus broke the left shoulder. The 7mm-08 did its trick — I'm glad we didn't have to track him in that heavy rain and after dark.

She had been looking for this 9 pt all season, but we didn't have any pics of him since rifle season came in —thought he might have been gone.

This is her longest kill, her largest buck to date, & her 5th 9 point (she can't seem to get past 9). We measured him at 132 gross. What would you age him at?

Getting him out was a bit of a challenge as a ditch that is normally ankle deep had 2.5 feet of flowing water that we had to wade through. Then I wasn't sure 4-wheeler was going to make it either. But all is good.

It's been a good season.
 

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duckduck84

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Dang! That's a heck of a buck and some good shooting. I'm not good at aging, but I'd say 4.5?

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
 

fairchaser

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Congrats to your daughter. She's a heck of a good shot! The buck is definitely mature and looks to be 4.5 at least but I will need to see his teeth to get a better assessment. Looks like your gonna have a big taxidermy bill this year!
 

Andy S.

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Atoka, TN
She rocked it, tell her congrats from all of us. She sat in the rain this late in the season, she's outpacing A LOT of the so called diehards I know. Big thumbs up to her. I would age him at 4.5+ from those pics. There is so much about this story that rings true for west TN and late season hunting. The part I like the best, other than her connecting with him, is that you all had not seen him in over a month and thought he was gone/dead. This is yet another sign of a mature buck, one than can vanish so to speak, but still be in the area, and be slick enough to survive most of the season. Big congrats to you two, thanks for sharing.
 

TN Larry

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Baxter, Tennessee
Very good deer and story along with the shot! Congrats! She's a trooper to sit out yesterday in the rain.

In terms of age, he looks at least 4.5 in the trail cam pics.
 

JJ3

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West Tennessee, USA
fairchaser":1lf70nlm said:
Congrats to your daughter. She's a heck of a good shot! The buck is definitely mature and looks to be 4.5 at least but I will need to see his teeth to get a better assessment. Looks like your gonna have a big taxidermy bill this year!

Fairchaser — you are exactly right and my wife's not too happy about it, but oh well. And the girl is footing the bill for this one. We'll get the jawbone from Stu later and see what it looks like. It weighed in at 195, a little smaller than the 10pt that I got, but in the pictures appears to be older.
 

JJ3

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West Tennessee, USA
Andy S.":1h77jnsw said:
She rocked it, tell her congrats from all of us. She sat in the rain this late in the season, she's outpacing A LOT of the so called diehards I know. Big thumbs up to her. I would age him at 4.5+ from those pics. There is so much about this story that rings true for west TN and late season hunting. The part I like the best, other than her connecting with him, is that you all had not seen him in over a month and thought he was gone/dead. This is yet another sign of a mature buck, one than can vanish so to speak, but still be in the area, and be slick enough to survive most of the season. Big congrats to you two, thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Andy. Between mid-October till mid-November we had him on camera multiple times, often in last light of day. One of our last pics had been on Nov 11 at 10:30 am —a day that we went fishing instead of hunt. So to get him now was a bonus. But we also used the rain in our favor. I'm sure the creek bottom was probably exceeding its banks, so the extra water may have changed his wandering pattern, Friday.
 

Jaahspike

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Arizona
Awesome story and great buck. Dedicated for sure. Most people are probably done hunting after the main rut and then pack it up until next year...and there is nothing wrong with that for sure. But I bet the big bucks know this and will disappear until late December and then start showing up again. Great job sticking it out and getting it done on a mature buck.
 

megalomaniac

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Mississippi
Awesome buck, congrats to her!

As far as age, the kill pic and 1st trail cam pic look 4.5 to me; the second trailcam pic looks like a 3.5 y/o; if he was 195lbs this late in the year, I'd tend to lean a bit more towards 4.5.
 
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