Brett Morris
PMA Member
Posted in PMA but wanted to post it here as well:
I had a heck of a weekend. Saturday night I elected to head out to a small farm close to home as soon as the rain let-up. My wife and I had our third child this summer so with 0 stands hung for the season I had no choice but to do a quick hang & hunt. After setting up and sitting for about 30 minutes I realized I couldn't see the harvested bean field behind me very well. That seemed to be where the activity was taking place. My only option was to climb higher or stand on the seat of my stand to get a better look.
As soon as I climbed up I could see this buck thrashing a scrape about 250 yards away. This was at 6:11. I really thought there was no chance of him coming my direction across a picked bean field so I text my wife to let her know I'd located a great buck for her early muzzleloader tag. We didn't have hardly any pictures of him on camera but I knew he'd shown up the week before. He continued to hit multiple scrapes and then turned and began walking across the field. Directly at me. Once he hit 100 yards I figured it was time to climb down to my platform and get ready. The next time I saw him was at 53 yards directly down-wind of my stand. He stopped, threw up his head, and spent the next 90 seconds trying to figure out what he'd smelled. I honestly thought there was no chance at this point. Eventually he took a few more steps to an opening at 43 yards and stopped perfectly broadside. When I ranged him I knew he was in trouble: my glen del buck is exactly 43 yards off our deck. I touched off my arrow and within 20 seconds he was staggering and going down. He was on the ground at 6:27.
His frame looked great walking across the field but I had no idea how big he was. He had over 42" of mass, each beam was approaching 27", 20-1/2 inches wide, and totaled up at exactly 160". Tagging out early has its emotions but I couldn't be more excited. With a new baby at home, moving in early November, and traveling for work it's going to be a great year to be tagged out in October. Now I can't wait to get him home & on the wall!
I had a heck of a weekend. Saturday night I elected to head out to a small farm close to home as soon as the rain let-up. My wife and I had our third child this summer so with 0 stands hung for the season I had no choice but to do a quick hang & hunt. After setting up and sitting for about 30 minutes I realized I couldn't see the harvested bean field behind me very well. That seemed to be where the activity was taking place. My only option was to climb higher or stand on the seat of my stand to get a better look.
As soon as I climbed up I could see this buck thrashing a scrape about 250 yards away. This was at 6:11. I really thought there was no chance of him coming my direction across a picked bean field so I text my wife to let her know I'd located a great buck for her early muzzleloader tag. We didn't have hardly any pictures of him on camera but I knew he'd shown up the week before. He continued to hit multiple scrapes and then turned and began walking across the field. Directly at me. Once he hit 100 yards I figured it was time to climb down to my platform and get ready. The next time I saw him was at 53 yards directly down-wind of my stand. He stopped, threw up his head, and spent the next 90 seconds trying to figure out what he'd smelled. I honestly thought there was no chance at this point. Eventually he took a few more steps to an opening at 43 yards and stopped perfectly broadside. When I ranged him I knew he was in trouble: my glen del buck is exactly 43 yards off our deck. I touched off my arrow and within 20 seconds he was staggering and going down. He was on the ground at 6:27.
His frame looked great walking across the field but I had no idea how big he was. He had over 42" of mass, each beam was approaching 27", 20-1/2 inches wide, and totaled up at exactly 160". Tagging out early has its emotions but I couldn't be more excited. With a new baby at home, moving in early November, and traveling for work it's going to be a great year to be tagged out in October. Now I can't wait to get him home & on the wall!
