BJohnson
Well-Known Member
This buck showed up on cams about 3 weeks ago but I didn't get good images until just recently. Cams showed him coming to the main plot on our farm about 30 minutes before dark on both Friday and Saturday. I got down to the farm Sunday around 1:00 with both a work project and hunting on my trip list. An old fashion post hole digging and gate install was done by 4:20 and after a short visit and shower at a neighbors home, I hustled back to the farm and got settled into a homemade blind overlooking a clover patch. The first deer in the plot was a short tined 10 at 7:00pm. He circled the blind in range and eventually looked back over his shoulder in the direction he had first entered the clover. When I turned to look that direction, this buck was already in the clover at about 15 steps. Knowing what buck he was, I didn't waste time looking him over but just got the bow and readied myself for a shot.
My first draw back on him yielded an unclear view of the top of my sight pin. After letting down, I turned on my sight light and drew back again. This time I could easily see my single pin vertically against his torso but he had started to walk straight away from the blind. A couple steps later he turned slightly to his left and gave me a narrow angle behind his ribs at approx 28-30 yrds. The lighted nock hit behind the near side ribs but was in line with the far side front leg. He bolted hard straight away from me with the lighted nock holding it's position tight as he ran - indicating the arrow was set into the torso solid. I found no blood across the plot and none in the first 20 yrds of cover so I backed out and drove the two hrs home with a plan to return early am for a recovery. Within 10 minutes this am, I had found him dead in his first bed, about 70 yrds off the edge of the plot near a small ravine.
This buck is the first taken off our farm since we bought it 4 years ago. I managed to take a couple does during the first 2 yrs but EHD hit the population fairly hard in 2019 so does were off limits in 2019 and 2020. I passed a couple decent bucks the first fall but had pretty much gotten my butt kicked by the bucks in 2018 and 2019.
This deer is OLD, not meant to score, and has a very unique set of antlers. Also, he is a small bodied buck - short torso - a prime example that shows not all small bodied bucks are young deer.
The name - according to a different neighbor around my farm, this buck survived an arrow from him last year and was also stuck by another hunter in 2019 (2 arrows in 2019). I told that story to a local friend who immediately dubbed him "Custer".
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My first draw back on him yielded an unclear view of the top of my sight pin. After letting down, I turned on my sight light and drew back again. This time I could easily see my single pin vertically against his torso but he had started to walk straight away from the blind. A couple steps later he turned slightly to his left and gave me a narrow angle behind his ribs at approx 28-30 yrds. The lighted nock hit behind the near side ribs but was in line with the far side front leg. He bolted hard straight away from me with the lighted nock holding it's position tight as he ran - indicating the arrow was set into the torso solid. I found no blood across the plot and none in the first 20 yrds of cover so I backed out and drove the two hrs home with a plan to return early am for a recovery. Within 10 minutes this am, I had found him dead in his first bed, about 70 yrds off the edge of the plot near a small ravine.
This buck is the first taken off our farm since we bought it 4 years ago. I managed to take a couple does during the first 2 yrs but EHD hit the population fairly hard in 2019 so does were off limits in 2019 and 2020. I passed a couple decent bucks the first fall but had pretty much gotten my butt kicked by the bucks in 2018 and 2019.
This deer is OLD, not meant to score, and has a very unique set of antlers. Also, he is a small bodied buck - short torso - a prime example that shows not all small bodied bucks are young deer.
The name - according to a different neighbor around my farm, this buck survived an arrow from him last year and was also stuck by another hunter in 2019 (2 arrows in 2019). I told that story to a local friend who immediately dubbed him "Custer".
Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
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