Brett Morris
PMA Member
Bow season was rough. I had a great opportunity at a buck we've known for a couple years. Probably a 145" buck with two GIANT drop tines. Each 10"+. Took a long shot and thought I absolutely smoked him. Blood had bubbles and looked really good at impact. The shot was facing east not long after sunrise so I didn't see the arrow fly at all so I had no idea where I'd hit him. Left him for 24 hours and got a dog to track. Very quickly the tracker informed me that the deer was alive. Turns out he was right, a week later he showed back up on camera.
A few weeks later on November 25th JP (my 7 year old) and I checked a few traps after I picked him up from school. We made the decision to dive into a blind on a food plot at 4 o'clock and immediately had action. A different farm 20+ miles from the double drop tine. Several does and then a buck that we've known for a couple years came out. Long story short: we had this buck inside of 50 yards for over 10 minutes. I was patient & calm. Let him come all the way into the plot and stopped him at 21 yards, slightly quartered away. All was great until my arrow blew through the trim threshold on the horizontal window of my Muddy blind. He was too close & it was too steep. The food plot falls away really hard so the deer was almost 20' below me. The arrow went into orbit and the encounter was over. My 7 year old was CRUSHED. He has been in the stand, on the ground, or in the blind at least 30-40 hunts this year.
Waiting the 3 weeks of gun season was torture. We were still getting pictures of him right before and after legal light every few days so it was a daily struggle of trying to decide if I should buy a Gun1 or Gun2 tag. Every day was torture. It would have been easier but this is a permission farm and gets shotgun hunted hard so buying a gun tag just wasn't worth the risk. The Monday of the 23rd I decided to go hunt conservatively with the hopes of observing/scouting. My little brother and I settled into a fence row on the very southwest part of the property. About 45 minutes later a group of 5 bucks came out on the neighboring farm, we couldn't see them very well but they were running all over. They almost looking spooked. It wasn't until the buck I harvested came out on our farm pushing a pair of fawns that we figured out that they'd been chasing these fawns around the CRP. The Cyst Buck (what we named him due to a giant cyst on his neck the year before) pushed them into the field and eventually took the estrous fawn and worked her right towards the fence row we were in. A 80 yard belly crawl got him to 182 yards and we couldn't go any further. I was incredibly blessed to drop him in his tracks and the rest is history. JP getting to come recover this deer was the literal peak of my hunting career. It had nothing to do with his size. Closing the chapter on a deer we should have harvested together meant the world to me. A bunch of friends came over and that's when I started to realize how big he really was. We've taped him three times now and the most conservative was 195-6/8". Thankful doesn't even begin to sum it up!!
A few weeks later on November 25th JP (my 7 year old) and I checked a few traps after I picked him up from school. We made the decision to dive into a blind on a food plot at 4 o'clock and immediately had action. A different farm 20+ miles from the double drop tine. Several does and then a buck that we've known for a couple years came out. Long story short: we had this buck inside of 50 yards for over 10 minutes. I was patient & calm. Let him come all the way into the plot and stopped him at 21 yards, slightly quartered away. All was great until my arrow blew through the trim threshold on the horizontal window of my Muddy blind. He was too close & it was too steep. The food plot falls away really hard so the deer was almost 20' below me. The arrow went into orbit and the encounter was over. My 7 year old was CRUSHED. He has been in the stand, on the ground, or in the blind at least 30-40 hunts this year.
Waiting the 3 weeks of gun season was torture. We were still getting pictures of him right before and after legal light every few days so it was a daily struggle of trying to decide if I should buy a Gun1 or Gun2 tag. Every day was torture. It would have been easier but this is a permission farm and gets shotgun hunted hard so buying a gun tag just wasn't worth the risk. The Monday of the 23rd I decided to go hunt conservatively with the hopes of observing/scouting. My little brother and I settled into a fence row on the very southwest part of the property. About 45 minutes later a group of 5 bucks came out on the neighboring farm, we couldn't see them very well but they were running all over. They almost looking spooked. It wasn't until the buck I harvested came out on our farm pushing a pair of fawns that we figured out that they'd been chasing these fawns around the CRP. The Cyst Buck (what we named him due to a giant cyst on his neck the year before) pushed them into the field and eventually took the estrous fawn and worked her right towards the fence row we were in. A 80 yard belly crawl got him to 182 yards and we couldn't go any further. I was incredibly blessed to drop him in his tracks and the rest is history. JP getting to come recover this deer was the literal peak of my hunting career. It had nothing to do with his size. Closing the chapter on a deer we should have harvested together meant the world to me. A bunch of friends came over and that's when I started to realize how big he really was. We've taped him three times now and the most conservative was 195-6/8". Thankful doesn't even begin to sum it up!!
