bigbuckhunter88
PMA Member
Warning long post.
Had been hunting hard all year with only one mature buck sighting from bow stand, our best scoring mature bucks got harvested during shotgun and the windshield time was showing the majority of deer feeding on the opposite side of the section in a cut corn field. Glassing the field I didn't see any deer I would shoot on any night I checked it. I hunted one sit the first weekend of late season in the timber and saw alot of deer but nothing I wanted to shoot. I was basically hunting 1 mature bully 8 point who is 6+ and busting up every deer on our farm. I had my sights set on him or a surprise deer that might show up to our soybean plot in our new Pollinator Program. New Years Day was the next night I could hunt the late season and the temps were cold. The high for the day was -5 up here with a windchill of who knows what. My wife swore I was crazy as I layered up heading out to the frozen tundra. When I walked out the door I told her I'd be late getting home because I was gonna shoot a monster. I got the typical eye roll and "hurry home to help with supper." When I pulled up to the farm and was getting ready I saw a deer already starting the long trek to the soybean plot to the timber so I kicked it into gear, snuck down and followed the frozen creek all the way to a side hill where I can see both travel routes. From the moment I got fully set up and until the very end I had deer within range. I probably had 50 deer pass by me on their way to feed throughout the night including some very nice 3 and 4 year olds that we are hoping make it through. With about 45 minutes left I could hear a deer walking in the switchgrass but couldn't see it so I decided to stand up the rest of the night and realized there was about 5 yards of the grass I hadn't been able to see a deer in when I'd been sitting. With 20 minutes of legal light left I caught movement to my east, so I turned so I could glass them. It was 4 does with another deer coming behind them. The last deer was also a doe and as I was glassing it I heard footsteps in the snow right behind me. I slowly turned my head to see what appeared to be a good buck and a small forky at 10 yards parallel heading to the beans. Lookong into the wind with a frozen face made my vision not the greatest so I let them work past a bit and put the binos on them. I counted 6 points on the right side, saw a horse body, thick beams and wide. My mind was made up. I let the big buck get to 35 yards in an opening and knelt and swung the gun onto him. As I did this the forky busted me and took off. I knew I didn't have alot of time so I steadied the crosshairs and squeezed one off. It looked like I hit him hard and he disappeared into the crp strip. I watched him run 30 yards and cartwheel when he got to the fenceline and never saw him after that. I was shaking uncontrollably due to the cold and adrenaline and started walking back to the hunting shack. When I got back I called my younger brother and asked where he was because "I think I just shot a giant...but he might be 130. I didn't get a good look at him but he's definitely mature." He tells me he's heading my way and we decide to drive my truck around to the side where I shot him hoping he was right there. I went to where I was and I directed my brother to where the deer was. He said he had hair and blood so I walked over to him. There was hardly and blood and thousands of deer tracks in the snow so I said i knew where he crossed the fence and that would give us some indication of the hit and if he was dead here or had gotten up. I got halfway through the crp strip and I could see him laying dead in the field. I hollered to my brother and as we walked up to him I knew he wasn't a 130. And when we picked his left side out of the snow we got another surprise with the inside tine.
When running across the downed barb wire fence he caught it with his lip and pulled it off of his jaw. He's a deer we had no history with but ended up finding out our tenants brother has trail cam pics of him from 5 miles away.
The other part of he surprise came when we put the tape to him. I was guessing him around 168-170 due to his short tines. But when we totalled it up his mass, beam length, and width carried him to 180-3/8s.
Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
Had been hunting hard all year with only one mature buck sighting from bow stand, our best scoring mature bucks got harvested during shotgun and the windshield time was showing the majority of deer feeding on the opposite side of the section in a cut corn field. Glassing the field I didn't see any deer I would shoot on any night I checked it. I hunted one sit the first weekend of late season in the timber and saw alot of deer but nothing I wanted to shoot. I was basically hunting 1 mature bully 8 point who is 6+ and busting up every deer on our farm. I had my sights set on him or a surprise deer that might show up to our soybean plot in our new Pollinator Program. New Years Day was the next night I could hunt the late season and the temps were cold. The high for the day was -5 up here with a windchill of who knows what. My wife swore I was crazy as I layered up heading out to the frozen tundra. When I walked out the door I told her I'd be late getting home because I was gonna shoot a monster. I got the typical eye roll and "hurry home to help with supper." When I pulled up to the farm and was getting ready I saw a deer already starting the long trek to the soybean plot to the timber so I kicked it into gear, snuck down and followed the frozen creek all the way to a side hill where I can see both travel routes. From the moment I got fully set up and until the very end I had deer within range. I probably had 50 deer pass by me on their way to feed throughout the night including some very nice 3 and 4 year olds that we are hoping make it through. With about 45 minutes left I could hear a deer walking in the switchgrass but couldn't see it so I decided to stand up the rest of the night and realized there was about 5 yards of the grass I hadn't been able to see a deer in when I'd been sitting. With 20 minutes of legal light left I caught movement to my east, so I turned so I could glass them. It was 4 does with another deer coming behind them. The last deer was also a doe and as I was glassing it I heard footsteps in the snow right behind me. I slowly turned my head to see what appeared to be a good buck and a small forky at 10 yards parallel heading to the beans. Lookong into the wind with a frozen face made my vision not the greatest so I let them work past a bit and put the binos on them. I counted 6 points on the right side, saw a horse body, thick beams and wide. My mind was made up. I let the big buck get to 35 yards in an opening and knelt and swung the gun onto him. As I did this the forky busted me and took off. I knew I didn't have alot of time so I steadied the crosshairs and squeezed one off. It looked like I hit him hard and he disappeared into the crp strip. I watched him run 30 yards and cartwheel when he got to the fenceline and never saw him after that. I was shaking uncontrollably due to the cold and adrenaline and started walking back to the hunting shack. When I got back I called my younger brother and asked where he was because "I think I just shot a giant...but he might be 130. I didn't get a good look at him but he's definitely mature." He tells me he's heading my way and we decide to drive my truck around to the side where I shot him hoping he was right there. I went to where I was and I directed my brother to where the deer was. He said he had hair and blood so I walked over to him. There was hardly and blood and thousands of deer tracks in the snow so I said i knew where he crossed the fence and that would give us some indication of the hit and if he was dead here or had gotten up. I got halfway through the crp strip and I could see him laying dead in the field. I hollered to my brother and as we walked up to him I knew he wasn't a 130. And when we picked his left side out of the snow we got another surprise with the inside tine.
When running across the downed barb wire fence he caught it with his lip and pulled it off of his jaw. He's a deer we had no history with but ended up finding out our tenants brother has trail cam pics of him from 5 miles away.
The other part of he surprise came when we put the tape to him. I was guessing him around 168-170 due to his short tines. But when we totalled it up his mass, beam length, and width carried him to 180-3/8s.
Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
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