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Twist of Fate

IowaDave

PMA Member
I was getting fairly demoralized with the lack of shooter bucks I was getting on my trail cameras this year. The past two years I’ve had cameras, it seemed I’d have a decent buck show up every now & then, but this year there’s been nothing since mid-August.
With that in mind, I really didn’t have a plan for the early muzzleloader season. I’d taken my daughter out for the youth season & we got her first deer (doe) and I’d been out a few times with my bow, but mostly to try & fill my doe tag. Since I had no plan, I sat on a farm I’d seen good deer on in the past opening weekend & saw a few small bucks & a fair amount of does. When I made it out again on Wednesday night, it was more of the same.
I take Thursday afternoons off and I decided to check a camera I put on a trail on one of our farms a couple weeks ago. When I got to the camera, it said I had 653 pictures on it. I knew the spot wasn’t that good and knew there were going to be a lot of ‘waving grass’ pics to sort through. Turns out I was right- when I got back to the pickup and started reviewing the pics with my camera, I went through pic after pic of nothing! I was just about to the end and was hardly paying attention when something caught my eye……

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The only pic of a deer on the whole card and it was that morning, in the daylight, and he was headed onto our ground! I knew at that time of the day he wasn’t going to wander far and would find a place to bed and this would be the best chance I had to get a shot at this deer.
There really isn’t a good way to get into my stand undetected, so I got ready & headed to the stand early. After a family of coons got my heart racing, the sun was getting low and I knew it was getting close to ‘go time’. About 6:30 a big doe came from the west & walked 60 yards in front of me, heading to a combined corn field, followed by another doe- the only problem was, I had another combined corn field at my back and was fully expecting the deer to be out there. These deer were about to cut my wind and I thought the whole thing was going to be over before it even got going. To my surprise, they must have stayed just out of my scent because they stared feeding and were joined by a fawn and another doe. Yet another doe came by in quite a hurry and was looking behind her and my heart started to race in anticipation. I put the gun on the rail in the clearing where the doe was and got ready. The doe stopped just before going into the corn and not 50 yards behind her a big buck was coming down the trail. It all happened very fast, but he bumped the doe and she took off on a trot making the does in the field very alert. The buck stopped for a second to mill around and that was all the time I needed- I put the crosshairs on his chest & let the TC Omega bark. I heard the ‘thump’ of the bullet hit him and he only made it 15 yards before his front legs gave out & he was down. I had a friend lose a doe that got up after going down last weekend & had decided that I was going to pump another round into one if I was lucky enough to get one down- I was shaking so bad I could hardly get the powder down the barrel!! By the time I got the bullet seated, it was obvious he wasn’t going anywhere so I called my buddy & got down to inspect my trophy.
I have no idea what he scores, nor will I ever because I have a personal thing against scoring bucks & ‘the books’, but I was curious about his spread so I measured that & it was 21 ½” inside.
It was just a totally fluke deal that I checked that camera that morning & that out of 653 pictures, the only picture of a deer, number 651, happened to be a shooter buck walking into my spot that very morning.
Like Dad always said- better to be lucky than good!

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Luck or fate it doesn't matter you put the time in and have a nice trophy in your own books. Congrats.
 
That trail cam pic would be a great one to frame and hang next to the mount!!!!!:way: Congrats!!!

Oddly, that's one of the first things that I thought of when he hit the ground, even before I came down from the tree. Ya, I definitely plan on doing that! I think that's the best part of the story, not to mention that I'd never got him if it weren't for that pic.

I forgot to add to my story that we weighed him at 220 pounds dressed, which according to a few formulas would make him about 270 live weight. Not quite to the 300 mark, but my buddy & I were sure 'nuff grunting getting him into the truck!
 
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