MWHunter
New Member
Are you ready for a long story? Ok, here we go. Beginning in the summer of 2009, my friend and I started getting pictures of 3 bucks hanging together in velvet that we immediately put on the hit list. One had a messed up rack (which I ended up arrowing last September). The other had what appeared to be a bunch of stickers on his bases so we named him Stickler.....the name Sticker would have been too original. Here's a pic of the two in 2009.
After I arrowed the goofy looking buck, my friend that owns the farm continued hunting and is fairly sure that he had a wayward arrow hit Stickler in the lower neck/brisket/front shoulder area. He never found the deer and nobody in the area found a dead buck in the spring, so we figured he survived. Here are some more photos of Stickler from last year.
Lets fast forward now to 2010. A friend of the landowner found both of Stickler's antlers on the neighboring property so we got a good look at them. The sheds were scored at the Shed Fest in April and we were guessing he was about 153-154" gross last year. We didn't get any pictures of Stickler in velvet this last summer, but we still had a good feeling he was alive. In late September we got the following pictures of him and were pumped to see that he was back on the farm. If you look close, there is a growth about the size of a volleyball on the front of his chest....we are thinking this was possibly an infection related to an arrow wound from the year before.
As this fall went on we kept getting trail cam pics of this buck, and in early October got pics of him with a 10-11" G3 broken off on the right side (at this time I can't find where I saved these pictures). Also in October, the guy that owns the land I hunt on had an encounter with Stickler in a new stand that we had hung........and his arrow hit a branch and totally missed the deer. Unlucky for him, but lucky for me I guess.
Once the rut arrived, Stickler seemed to have disappeared. We went close to six weeks before we had any trail cam pictures of him until I got these pics....two nights before I shot him. He looks to be in decent health, but you can see the growth on his chest and if you look close can see he has a broken right rear leg....which he was licking in one of the pictures. Note, the time on the camera is wrong because I forgot to change it back....so it's actually 5:02 pm....just after shooting hours. I had a good feeling that if I hunted that general area, that he would come out during shooting hours.
On the farm I was hunting there was still about 10 acres of standing corn left along with a lot of freshly combined corn. On the night of my hunt, the landowner combined most of the remaining corn and turned the combine off at 4:15 p.m. Not long after he stopped, Stickler popped out of the woods and I was shocked to see that he only had half of his rack on his head.......and he was missing the "good" side. As he was eating in the freshly picked corn, I contemplated on whether to shoot him or not. He was about 80 to 100 yds away. My mind was racing as to what caused him to either drop his antler or break it off in the last two days. Finally, he started walking and that is when I noticed he was limping pretty bad. It was then that I decided that he probably shed the other antler and probably was in bad shape physically. I decided to shoot.......and hopefully kill him........and then hopefully find the other antler. Well I shot and with all of the smoke from my muzzleloader, I wasn't sure if I hit him or not. In fact, I thought that I missed him after we didn't find any blood in the corn field. I decided to back out and come back the following day after work. I was on my own that day, because my hunting buddy was on the road for work. I went to where I thought he ran into the woods and started with small 30 yard circles in the woods and after only a few minutes I stumbled onto this.
He had only went 60 yards or so and I found that I hit him perfect....right behind the shoulder.....and his only attached antler fell off next to him. I was thinking this was rather unlucky, but could have been worse. I could have had to shed hunt for two antlers, but instead I only had to find one. After that I headed back into the corn field and spent close to an hour going through the picked corn and beans.........coming up empty handed. I was kind of frustrated knowing that we had a big snow storm coming the next day. I decided to head back and at least drag the deer to the field edge so I could get him in my truck. As I was walking back I got into the timber and 20 yards in I found this fresh deer bed.
Instantly I thought to myself that this was probably his bed and thought just maybe the other antler was near here. As I was standing in the bed, I looked to my left and this was laying about 25 feet away. How lucky can a guy be????? I started high-fiving myself and probably looked like a little kid as I was jumping up and down.
I am not a professional scorer, but I am usually very close. I scored the left side (10 scoreable) at 76 6/8. I scored the right side (factoring in a 10" g3 when it was probably closer to 11") at 73 5/8. A total of 17 scoreable points with 3 others just under an inch. I factored in an 18" inside spread and we are thinking it was a little more than that. That makes a rough gross score of 168 3/8. I have a 160 and a 163 so this is most likley my biggest buck ever. I couldn't be more happy and consider myself VERY lucky to end up with both antlers. For those wondering, I did call the Wisconsin DNR before I did anything and they did tell me that because I was honest and told them I had the antlers that I had to use my buck tag and to tag it in the ear. If I wouldn't have found either antler they said at that point I would use my doe tag. Here are some final pictures.
Thanks for reading this LONG story.
After I arrowed the goofy looking buck, my friend that owns the farm continued hunting and is fairly sure that he had a wayward arrow hit Stickler in the lower neck/brisket/front shoulder area. He never found the deer and nobody in the area found a dead buck in the spring, so we figured he survived. Here are some more photos of Stickler from last year.
Lets fast forward now to 2010. A friend of the landowner found both of Stickler's antlers on the neighboring property so we got a good look at them. The sheds were scored at the Shed Fest in April and we were guessing he was about 153-154" gross last year. We didn't get any pictures of Stickler in velvet this last summer, but we still had a good feeling he was alive. In late September we got the following pictures of him and were pumped to see that he was back on the farm. If you look close, there is a growth about the size of a volleyball on the front of his chest....we are thinking this was possibly an infection related to an arrow wound from the year before.
As this fall went on we kept getting trail cam pics of this buck, and in early October got pics of him with a 10-11" G3 broken off on the right side (at this time I can't find where I saved these pictures). Also in October, the guy that owns the land I hunt on had an encounter with Stickler in a new stand that we had hung........and his arrow hit a branch and totally missed the deer. Unlucky for him, but lucky for me I guess.
Once the rut arrived, Stickler seemed to have disappeared. We went close to six weeks before we had any trail cam pictures of him until I got these pics....two nights before I shot him. He looks to be in decent health, but you can see the growth on his chest and if you look close can see he has a broken right rear leg....which he was licking in one of the pictures. Note, the time on the camera is wrong because I forgot to change it back....so it's actually 5:02 pm....just after shooting hours. I had a good feeling that if I hunted that general area, that he would come out during shooting hours.
On the farm I was hunting there was still about 10 acres of standing corn left along with a lot of freshly combined corn. On the night of my hunt, the landowner combined most of the remaining corn and turned the combine off at 4:15 p.m. Not long after he stopped, Stickler popped out of the woods and I was shocked to see that he only had half of his rack on his head.......and he was missing the "good" side. As he was eating in the freshly picked corn, I contemplated on whether to shoot him or not. He was about 80 to 100 yds away. My mind was racing as to what caused him to either drop his antler or break it off in the last two days. Finally, he started walking and that is when I noticed he was limping pretty bad. It was then that I decided that he probably shed the other antler and probably was in bad shape physically. I decided to shoot.......and hopefully kill him........and then hopefully find the other antler. Well I shot and with all of the smoke from my muzzleloader, I wasn't sure if I hit him or not. In fact, I thought that I missed him after we didn't find any blood in the corn field. I decided to back out and come back the following day after work. I was on my own that day, because my hunting buddy was on the road for work. I went to where I thought he ran into the woods and started with small 30 yard circles in the woods and after only a few minutes I stumbled onto this.
He had only went 60 yards or so and I found that I hit him perfect....right behind the shoulder.....and his only attached antler fell off next to him. I was thinking this was rather unlucky, but could have been worse. I could have had to shed hunt for two antlers, but instead I only had to find one. After that I headed back into the corn field and spent close to an hour going through the picked corn and beans.........coming up empty handed. I was kind of frustrated knowing that we had a big snow storm coming the next day. I decided to head back and at least drag the deer to the field edge so I could get him in my truck. As I was walking back I got into the timber and 20 yards in I found this fresh deer bed.
Instantly I thought to myself that this was probably his bed and thought just maybe the other antler was near here. As I was standing in the bed, I looked to my left and this was laying about 25 feet away. How lucky can a guy be????? I started high-fiving myself and probably looked like a little kid as I was jumping up and down.
I am not a professional scorer, but I am usually very close. I scored the left side (10 scoreable) at 76 6/8. I scored the right side (factoring in a 10" g3 when it was probably closer to 11") at 73 5/8. A total of 17 scoreable points with 3 others just under an inch. I factored in an 18" inside spread and we are thinking it was a little more than that. That makes a rough gross score of 168 3/8. I have a 160 and a 163 so this is most likley my biggest buck ever. I couldn't be more happy and consider myself VERY lucky to end up with both antlers. For those wondering, I did call the Wisconsin DNR before I did anything and they did tell me that because I was honest and told them I had the antlers that I had to use my buck tag and to tag it in the ear. If I wouldn't have found either antler they said at that point I would use my doe tag. Here are some final pictures.
Thanks for reading this LONG story.
Congrats well done.
