Great bucks and stories guys. Lot of folks I know still hunting hard or having a hard go at hunting! Never easy, ever!
Called this buck "Twizzlers", since a younger age, his brows weaved together sort of to look like twizzlers. Not as much as he got older but name stuck. He's 7 this year UNLESS I was wrong the 1st year I noticed him & he's possibly 8. I've followed him since he was 3 years old. I passed him last year as it was still "EHD RECOVERY" on me & he was a stallion of a buck - I just wanted to let him go. He was mid 90's+ last year. I know this is insane but it’s just what I wanted to do... No guarantee he'd survive but I just wanted to let things be and take some management bucks. Thankfully he did make it. This year, with 10" of broke off tine, he's still in 80's and be in 90's if I find the tine. Which, I think I will
but don't really care about score - the age and history really made this awesome. Old, mature, smart. Each year he gained & lost something cool. Lived in tiny core area of TSI I've done and never showed up on any more than 2 trail cams. Small core area!
SHORT STORY: Saw him last week at 300 yards. Video'd him for a while. No calling him in. I tried - he wasn't having it. 3 days later, wind was shifting hourly.... time was right so I said "to heck with it, I'm going way back in timber - they come from every direction so I'll screw something up but still be awesome & fun". About 9am, pops up on ridge, upwind of me. I look behind me, a little dinker buck... A little grunt and I had my live decoy about to get beat up. Drew... Quartering to - waited, broadside - held.... quartering away - WHACK. 27 yards and he must have been moving a touch forward as I hit a little back. 20 yards, over. Great seeing him all these years and it finally working out. Bittersweet he won't be walking out there but a smart crafty survivor that made for a great memory in 2017. Some other bucks may be relieved he's gone.
here's some pics of buck and also some pics of him in previous year or years & 2017. Shed was from 2016 growing year.
Best of luck to you guys and enjoy the time outdoors!
Called this buck "Twizzlers", since a younger age, his brows weaved together sort of to look like twizzlers. Not as much as he got older but name stuck. He's 7 this year UNLESS I was wrong the 1st year I noticed him & he's possibly 8. I've followed him since he was 3 years old. I passed him last year as it was still "EHD RECOVERY" on me & he was a stallion of a buck - I just wanted to let him go. He was mid 90's+ last year. I know this is insane but it’s just what I wanted to do... No guarantee he'd survive but I just wanted to let things be and take some management bucks. Thankfully he did make it. This year, with 10" of broke off tine, he's still in 80's and be in 90's if I find the tine. Which, I think I will
but don't really care about score - the age and history really made this awesome. Old, mature, smart. Each year he gained & lost something cool. Lived in tiny core area of TSI I've done and never showed up on any more than 2 trail cams. Small core area!SHORT STORY: Saw him last week at 300 yards. Video'd him for a while. No calling him in. I tried - he wasn't having it. 3 days later, wind was shifting hourly.... time was right so I said "to heck with it, I'm going way back in timber - they come from every direction so I'll screw something up but still be awesome & fun". About 9am, pops up on ridge, upwind of me. I look behind me, a little dinker buck... A little grunt and I had my live decoy about to get beat up. Drew... Quartering to - waited, broadside - held.... quartering away - WHACK. 27 yards and he must have been moving a touch forward as I hit a little back. 20 yards, over. Great seeing him all these years and it finally working out. Bittersweet he won't be walking out there but a smart crafty survivor that made for a great memory in 2017. Some other bucks may be relieved he's gone.
here's some pics of buck and also some pics of him in previous year or years & 2017. Shed was from 2016 growing year.
Best of luck to you guys and enjoy the time outdoors!
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