Lucky13
Member
Im posting this a little late but here we go....I leased a new piece of ground this year in a very good area. I was able to get on it right after winter to shed hunt it and found a few but nothing big. With the wet spring the farm did not get planted with any crops. I was able to put in some good size food plots but no grain. Well the season started off actually pretty poor, with summer pics just not being there, no deer really hitting my mineral, so i was a little less than upset at the lack of deer on this farm. Well as the fall approached the sightings began to increase but still not what i was looking for. I hunted pretty hard during November with sightings of a pile of great up and comers and only two mature deer all year. One of which I really wanted to harvest and had him at 43 yards but couldnt get the shot off due to one branch. Well as bow season came and gone i had encounters with both mature deer but it just never happened. Shotgun season we dont hunt so i stayed off the property and monitored via trail cams and to my surprise both of the mature deer actually began to move alot during daylight hours over the turnips. I hunted the second day of late muzzy with nearly 50 deer sightings that evening just nothing old enough to shoot. So i headed out Xmas eve with hopes one would show itself. With the wind being very shifty that day I incorporated a make shift cedar blind and sat on the ground. Deer movement was actually somewhat slow but with about 30 mins of shooting time left i had two younger bucks in the plot feeding and they both snapped their heads up and stared into the woods, I just had that feeling that there was a more dominant buck coming, so as i glassed into the timber I could see a wall of white bone coming, I sat and instantly tried paging through all the trail cam pics in my mind but this guy wasnt there. He was a new deer a big deer. I decided then and there that if presented with the opportunity I was going to take the shot. I shouldered my muzzleloader and peered through the scope, he reached the field edge and started looking all around, he kept looking to my left, there i was just waiting for an opportunity and something told me to look left so i did. There he was the Short Tine 10 at 25 yards!!!! He noticed my head movement stared at me and bounded about 15 yards and stopped..he didnt see ME he just saw a little something. So he stood there looking at me and then looking at the other deer, then he looked at me and then the other deer, he did this 5-6 times and I knew this was the most dominant deer on my farm and his genetics were not what i wanted.. So he looked at that other deer one more time I adjusted over and pulled the trigger, heard the smack and watched him run off. About 5 seconds later I heard a noise and knew that he either fell over or jumped the creek. After not taking a buck last year at all and having a sub par bow season my emotions began to run. I got up went and looked for blood and of course found none in the dried up oat stubble. I walked slowly on the trail he entered on and i found a small drop of blood, now my nerves took over..I pointed the flashlight 20 yards in front of me and there he was!! I called my wife and told her the news!!!! Part of the deal for me hunting on Xmas eve(we have two young children) was I had to make to Xmas eve services at our church! She told me she was on the way and then my phone died(what luck!) I made it to field approach and she was there (im)patiently waiting for me. Unloaded my gear hopped in the truck and changed my clothes. We went to church but of course I could not concentrate on anything at that point. After service I arranged some help from a good friend went and dropped the family off and made my way back to the farm to retrieve my downed game!
He is not the super mega giant I was hoping for early in the year but to shoot a deer of this age class is a trophy all of its own! I am more than ecstatic to wrap my tag around this legendary animal! To top things off I actually picked up his shed from last year and I made the right choice to not let him live any longer! I will tell this great story for the rest of my life when people ask about this particular on my wall!!!
I hope you all enjoy!!!!
He is not the super mega giant I was hoping for early in the year but to shoot a deer of this age class is a trophy all of its own! I am more than ecstatic to wrap my tag around this legendary animal! To top things off I actually picked up his shed from last year and I made the right choice to not let him live any longer! I will tell this great story for the rest of my life when people ask about this particular on my wall!!!
I hope you all enjoy!!!!
