MNbuckhunter
Member
Last night was the single greatest moment of my hunting career. My father and I were hunting our farm in west-central MN. We had good snow cover (6-8") and know how the deer love to walk right past our standing corn and into our standing soybean plots come snow and cold. With wind chills around -5, the conditions were right...but I never expected what came next.
With about 10 minutes of shooting light left I spotted deer #20 for the evening. It was a buck I know all too well, but have never had the privilege of meeting eye to eye. I couldn't believe what was about to happen and I did all I could to try to control my shaking and breathing as he stepped into my lane at 24 yards. I stopped him and let the slick trick magnum fly. He piled up about 50 yards away!
We usually get 1 or 2 pictures a year of this buck and they are all in the middle of the night. We have gotten pictures of him since 2009, so he is believed to be a minimum of 6.5 years old. Our neighbor west of us a couple miles has always gotten pictures of this deer and had a crack at him in 2010 where he was unable to connect. Judging by the trail pics he maxed out in 2010.
2009
2010
2011
It was truly incredible to be able to connect on this buck and I feel very fortunate at having the opportunity at a deer of this caliber.
AND
What makes this evening even better was that harvesting this buck was just the beginning to a magical night. Literally 5 minutes after I shot my buck my dad had sent me a text saying he hit one as well! His buck was a mainframe 10 point with split brows and a split G3. Truly another amazing buck, and one we had never seen before (where do they come from???)
Couple other harvest photos...
We put the tape to these two guys today and had my buck grossed at a touch over 169", with a 27"+ main beam on his right side (other was broke off and a touch over 25"). My dads buck grossed just over 165"! What an incredible evening it was...you can't ask for a better moment to share with your father!
With about 10 minutes of shooting light left I spotted deer #20 for the evening. It was a buck I know all too well, but have never had the privilege of meeting eye to eye. I couldn't believe what was about to happen and I did all I could to try to control my shaking and breathing as he stepped into my lane at 24 yards. I stopped him and let the slick trick magnum fly. He piled up about 50 yards away!
We usually get 1 or 2 pictures a year of this buck and they are all in the middle of the night. We have gotten pictures of him since 2009, so he is believed to be a minimum of 6.5 years old. Our neighbor west of us a couple miles has always gotten pictures of this deer and had a crack at him in 2010 where he was unable to connect. Judging by the trail pics he maxed out in 2010.
2009
2010
2011
It was truly incredible to be able to connect on this buck and I feel very fortunate at having the opportunity at a deer of this caliber.
AND
What makes this evening even better was that harvesting this buck was just the beginning to a magical night. Literally 5 minutes after I shot my buck my dad had sent me a text saying he hit one as well! His buck was a mainframe 10 point with split brows and a split G3. Truly another amazing buck, and one we had never seen before (where do they come from???)
Couple other harvest photos...
We put the tape to these two guys today and had my buck grossed at a touch over 169", with a 27"+ main beam on his right side (other was broke off and a touch over 25"). My dads buck grossed just over 165"! What an incredible evening it was...you can't ask for a better moment to share with your father!
