meyeri
PMA Member
This buck will be one of my more memorable hunts for sure. I had quite a few trail cam pictures of him from last year and I guessed him at 3 or 4 at the time. He had awesome mass and character and I really hoped he survived till the next year. To my surprise he shed one of his antlers on December 21st, so I figured odds were pretty good he would survive the rest of the season if he didn't die of health issues. I picked up his shed in the spring and the mass was incredible on it.
Fast forward to this season and I almost didn't recognize him at first glance from the trail cam pics. He turned into a cleaner 10 point frame and his mass was awesome again. He was honestly a deer I thought needed another year, but my number one hit list buck was killed by another hunter and this was the only other decent one I had on cam so far. Where this buck lives I have a perfect setup for access, entry and wind if I have a S or SE wind. On November 5th we had a south wind and rain in the forecast, so I grabbed my umbrella and rain gear and went in for an all day sit. I'd been sick as a dog all week and actually took the 3rd off cuz I felt so crappy. On the fifth I was a bit better, but honest to God I used half a roll of TP to quietly blow my nose in the tree stand.
The morning started off pretty slow and so I quietly rattled around 8am. Rattled in a couple small bucks, but nothing big had responded here yet this year. I'd rattled 4 or 5 times on another all day sit, but only 1.5 year olds had come in. I kept seeing coyotes like crazy all morning, I hate to use a new broad head on a yote, so I keep a sharpened fixed blade out to swap out for yotes. I actually drew my bow back 3 times on different yotes, but couldn't get them to stop or couldn't get the arrow swapped out in time. All the coyote activity kicked up a couple deer and I thought I saw this buck move north of me with a group of does at one point. I rattled again around 9am, but nothing responded.
Fast forward to 10:38am and I figure what the heck, let's really rattle aggressively and see if I can coax something in. My stand was pretty bulletproof with this wind as most the trails are on my upwind side. Around 10:45am I catch movement to my ESE and it's this buck. He's looking for the action and stops at 70 yds and 50yds to make scrapes. He is extremely cautious and keeps slowly moving down the trail. At this point he is at 30 yds, but I have no shot. He glances over and I'm pretty sure he sees my umbrella in the tree....crap! He immediately turns east and steps behind a cedar tree. I snort wheeze and he stops dead in his tracks. He starts making a scrape again and I give him another snort wheeze after a minute or so. He stands there for a what seems like forever, likely only a couple more minutes, and then starts coming back towards me. He's on a trail that will give me a shot at 25, 30 and 35 yds where my lanes are clear. Perfect. Just as he's about to hit the opening he stops again and heads south. He's at 20 yds now and I have no shot because all around me in this area is honeysuckle bush and it's thick. At 15 yds I can see him behind a bunch of branches and he looks like he spots my umbrella again. Double crap! His head went behind a tree as he took a step and I came to full draw. I figure I'll be able to find some kind of lane at this close of range. As he stepped forward I had a opening at his vitals even though he was somewhat quartering to me. I knew I'd need to tuck the arrow high on his shoulder to makeup for the angle and I let it fly as soon as I had a small window. I watched the arrow bury into him and he bolted at the shot. I couldn't see any blood or where I hit him as he was running away. At 30 yds he stopped and I grabbed another arrow as he didn't act hit at all. He let out a huge breath and I instantly thought double lung. He sprinted off and I heard him crash in some brush 50 yds away. I fist pumped and said thank you Jesus!
The coolest thing about this story is that I used one of his previous years' sheds to rattle him in with. It's also interesting that I took my umbrella down for an hour or so when it wasn't raining that morning. Where it was located at the first time it would have blocked this shot. As I was putting it back up I was like, "you know you better move it higher in case something comes in on this side."
Pictures don't do his mass justice one bit. He is one of those bucks that I was on the fence about shooting as I wasn't sure if he was 4 or 5, but once I saw him in person there was no way he was getting a pass. He ended up taping out at 160 1/8 and I did it twice, just to make sure. Super happy to wrap my tag around this animal and thankful for the meat that his harvest will provide.
Fast forward to this season and I almost didn't recognize him at first glance from the trail cam pics. He turned into a cleaner 10 point frame and his mass was awesome again. He was honestly a deer I thought needed another year, but my number one hit list buck was killed by another hunter and this was the only other decent one I had on cam so far. Where this buck lives I have a perfect setup for access, entry and wind if I have a S or SE wind. On November 5th we had a south wind and rain in the forecast, so I grabbed my umbrella and rain gear and went in for an all day sit. I'd been sick as a dog all week and actually took the 3rd off cuz I felt so crappy. On the fifth I was a bit better, but honest to God I used half a roll of TP to quietly blow my nose in the tree stand.
The morning started off pretty slow and so I quietly rattled around 8am. Rattled in a couple small bucks, but nothing big had responded here yet this year. I'd rattled 4 or 5 times on another all day sit, but only 1.5 year olds had come in. I kept seeing coyotes like crazy all morning, I hate to use a new broad head on a yote, so I keep a sharpened fixed blade out to swap out for yotes. I actually drew my bow back 3 times on different yotes, but couldn't get them to stop or couldn't get the arrow swapped out in time. All the coyote activity kicked up a couple deer and I thought I saw this buck move north of me with a group of does at one point. I rattled again around 9am, but nothing responded.
Fast forward to 10:38am and I figure what the heck, let's really rattle aggressively and see if I can coax something in. My stand was pretty bulletproof with this wind as most the trails are on my upwind side. Around 10:45am I catch movement to my ESE and it's this buck. He's looking for the action and stops at 70 yds and 50yds to make scrapes. He is extremely cautious and keeps slowly moving down the trail. At this point he is at 30 yds, but I have no shot. He glances over and I'm pretty sure he sees my umbrella in the tree....crap! He immediately turns east and steps behind a cedar tree. I snort wheeze and he stops dead in his tracks. He starts making a scrape again and I give him another snort wheeze after a minute or so. He stands there for a what seems like forever, likely only a couple more minutes, and then starts coming back towards me. He's on a trail that will give me a shot at 25, 30 and 35 yds where my lanes are clear. Perfect. Just as he's about to hit the opening he stops again and heads south. He's at 20 yds now and I have no shot because all around me in this area is honeysuckle bush and it's thick. At 15 yds I can see him behind a bunch of branches and he looks like he spots my umbrella again. Double crap! His head went behind a tree as he took a step and I came to full draw. I figure I'll be able to find some kind of lane at this close of range. As he stepped forward I had a opening at his vitals even though he was somewhat quartering to me. I knew I'd need to tuck the arrow high on his shoulder to makeup for the angle and I let it fly as soon as I had a small window. I watched the arrow bury into him and he bolted at the shot. I couldn't see any blood or where I hit him as he was running away. At 30 yds he stopped and I grabbed another arrow as he didn't act hit at all. He let out a huge breath and I instantly thought double lung. He sprinted off and I heard him crash in some brush 50 yds away. I fist pumped and said thank you Jesus!
The coolest thing about this story is that I used one of his previous years' sheds to rattle him in with. It's also interesting that I took my umbrella down for an hour or so when it wasn't raining that morning. Where it was located at the first time it would have blocked this shot. As I was putting it back up I was like, "you know you better move it higher in case something comes in on this side."
Pictures don't do his mass justice one bit. He is one of those bucks that I was on the fence about shooting as I wasn't sure if he was 4 or 5, but once I saw him in person there was no way he was getting a pass. He ended up taping out at 160 1/8 and I did it twice, just to make sure. Super happy to wrap my tag around this animal and thankful for the meat that his harvest will provide.
