Buckhunter92
Well-Known Member
Way to double up on the year. Congrats on another great deer!
Kicker 8
- Thread starter CurtisWalker
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Charlie Lueth
Member
Great buck!I went into late season with one deer I really wanted to kill but I hadn’t seen him since Dec 5th so it was a long shot. On the 21st I got photos of a new buck
Even with the photos I wasn’t sure if I’d even try to hunt him let alone shoot him if I did hunt him because I wanted the other deer so bad. On the 26th I figured I’d go and see what I saw on the farm and was skunked. Not even a squirrel. Typical on this farm late season it’s so hit or miss. So the 27th my buddy and I went and hunted a piece of public just to try something new. I had a nice 150” 9pt step out at 180ish yards. I took a shot unfortunately I used the wrong MOA line and shot under him. I knew exactly what I did wrong after I squeezed the trigger. Took Wednesday off and figured I’d hunt yesterday. I knew I’d go in early because the pics I had gotten of that buck were earlier in the day so I left work at 12:30pm and headed out. I got set up around 1:45pm and started seeing does and fawns right away unfortunately they were all headed to the neighbors so I thought it was going to be a bust. I went in thinking it was a S wind and I was being a bit risky where I sat up but quickly realized the weathermen were wrong and it was a NE wind which favored me very well. This was my set up, just sitting on a creek bank. As you can see by the matted down grass I was sitting next to my muzzleloader. Which turned out to be a mess I’ll get into later on.
My view:
So after the does and fawns filed north onto the neighbors I just sat there watching as I could see more deer walking in the neighbors going even further north. My thought was instantly “great, this is a waste of time”.
At about 3:17pm I started to see deer start making their way back towards the property I was hunting.
Literally every deer I had on camera were seen walking on the neighbors except for the 3 deer I wanted to see. Above the draw in front of me is a picked bean field and I assumed that’s where the deer were headed with their direction of travel. Around 3:22pm 5 does and fawns popped out in front of me at about 75 yards. Now remember I’m on the bank sitting next to my rifle, in the wide open and have these deer at 75 yards and closing. Then a couple small bucks and more does join them. I kind of slide down the bank and use my phone to take a video of the deer in front of me and then set my phone down as it’s trying to send to my buddy. I look up to see the kicker 8 at 115 yards and closing. Now granted I’m still not even close to my muzzleloader, it’s on the death grip up on top of the bank the does are now at 50 yards. I’m kind of panicking as once I saw the buck I had no doubts I wanted to shoot him. So I slowly slide my way to kind of get behind the muzzleloader. And the does kind of filter up into the end of the point. The buck around 96 yards now. Well all of a sudden here comes the herd of does running out of the point directly at me. The buck is slightly quartering away facing where the does just ran from. I figured that was my chance as if I spook the does he wouldn’t have a clue what was happening and if I didn’t do it now the does were going to run me over. So I stand up get on the gun and settle the crosshairs on him and squeeze the trigger. I thought I missed until he turned and started running up the grass on the hill and I could see the blood pouring out of him. I thought I could see feet kicking in the air right after he topped the hill but wasn’t sure so I waited a half hour before going to track.
This year I switched my bullets and went to the Thor bullets, they are a Barnes bullet machined to be sabot less. Let me tell you they are the most accurate bullets I’ve shot out of a muzzleloader and the blood trail was insane. I followed it with ease and he was laying dead right where I thought I had saw legs kicking. I couldn’t be happier with this buck and he is a personal best gun deer and 2nd best buck I have ever harvested.
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CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
For this buck, I went with the new extreme sneak wall pedestal. That had just been released last fall, like the last shoulder mount I got I went with a form that was brand new just to keep things different. I think it turned out pretty awesome. Can’t thank Dylan Kral enough for the time and effort he puts into his work.
Looks great!
