Held off on posting here till I knew what was gonna shake out.
To make a real long story short of the history I have with this deer, I shot at him two years ago, the rest had not quite cleared the blind and the arrow went thru the bottom of the window of the pop up....hit the deer but the arrow was sideways. The landowner and his buddy both missed a shot at him shortly after that, with both rifle and bow. Didn't hunt the property last year due to other hunting obligations, I saw him this august while I was messing around this while he was in velvet and decided to bowhunt him. 3 weeks went by and the very first sit I had him at 27 yards, tried for a heart shot with my 20 yard pin and arrow sailed underneath him. Was a combination of angry/amused by his luck. Hunted a few more times after that and was pretty sure I bumped him at 6 am last weekend walking to my pop up....
Planned to hunt last Monday, that got pushed to Wed, then went and worked on the same property but did not hunt due to as much activity as was taken place around the stand ( we actually burned several piles of cedar about 100 yards from the stand) Thursday was too busy and Friday was out due to scheduling. Friday afternoon I get a call that my Aunt who I am real close with passed away in her sleep that morning. Kinda bummed out over that, but knowing she was always very supportive of my hunting, I get up at 4:00 am the next morning and make my way to the ranch. Get there and make the 10 min drive to the blind, then the 15 min walk to the stand, only to find my folding chair filled up with water. I dump the contents of my backpack out and end up sitting ontop of it in the chair. wait the hour and a half in the dark. Didn't bump any animals coming in so that was good. I had a feeling he was going to come in....some kind of knowing that it wasn't an if but a when. Feeder goes off at 7:05 and 2 doe come into feed, followed by another one. I can hear a few bulls bugling off in the distance. Around 7:30 all the does look behind the feeder, as the sun was just coming over the hills I see antlers coming into view. it was like something from a movie. Heart starts beating and I start giving myself the calm down pep talk. he walks to the left of the feeder and starts sniffing the air...I was worried about the wind, out of the north its marginal, out of the northwest its no Bueno at all, (he happened to come from a different direction than last time and I think that may have saved me). he is sniffing and begins to stomp his hoof...i'm thinking this is it he is gonna blow and take off. the does are still eating as if nothing is happening. all of a sudden he drops his head and starts to feed, then snaps it back up again sniffing the air. he turns around and takes a few steps then stops. I figure he isn't going to hang around as he knows something is up so I draw back and settle the pin behind his shoulder. I hit the trigger on the release and see the arrow sail into his ribcage, he jumps like a bucking bronc and spins around and high tails it. After a few seconds I hear him crash.
I give it a few min, then I go retrieve my arrow, which was laying right next to where I shot him, covered in blood. I start walking down the trail and find him laying on the edge of the tree line about 100 yards away.
After a few pics, getting him into the truck and to the taxi, it comes to light that he is a unique specimen and maybe I should have him scored.
My taxi is a scorer for SCI and he tapes him out at 119" SCI and 112 " R.O.E.
We submit it to the record books, which is a bit skewed as they did away with the 3 subspecies each having their own category and are now all lumped into one. Anyone who knows sika know that there are commonly 3 very distinct subspecies, with the Japanese being the smallest, followed by the much larger Dybowski and Manchurian. They also don't have separate catagories for high fence and low fence. As it sits now, he will rank No. 154 all time in North America ( competing against Dybowski, Manchurian and Their crosses) and No. 21 All time bow killed. Europe has its own category for Jap Sika and if you put him in there he comes in at No. 17 and No. 1 bow killed. Their minimums are also a lot lower to reflect the Japanese line.
I wonder what he would rank as all time Bow killed Free Range Japanese Sika....its anybody's guess.
He is a heck of a deer, probably the prettiest animal I have ever taken
To make a real long story short of the history I have with this deer, I shot at him two years ago, the rest had not quite cleared the blind and the arrow went thru the bottom of the window of the pop up....hit the deer but the arrow was sideways. The landowner and his buddy both missed a shot at him shortly after that, with both rifle and bow. Didn't hunt the property last year due to other hunting obligations, I saw him this august while I was messing around this while he was in velvet and decided to bowhunt him. 3 weeks went by and the very first sit I had him at 27 yards, tried for a heart shot with my 20 yard pin and arrow sailed underneath him. Was a combination of angry/amused by his luck. Hunted a few more times after that and was pretty sure I bumped him at 6 am last weekend walking to my pop up....
Planned to hunt last Monday, that got pushed to Wed, then went and worked on the same property but did not hunt due to as much activity as was taken place around the stand ( we actually burned several piles of cedar about 100 yards from the stand) Thursday was too busy and Friday was out due to scheduling. Friday afternoon I get a call that my Aunt who I am real close with passed away in her sleep that morning. Kinda bummed out over that, but knowing she was always very supportive of my hunting, I get up at 4:00 am the next morning and make my way to the ranch. Get there and make the 10 min drive to the blind, then the 15 min walk to the stand, only to find my folding chair filled up with water. I dump the contents of my backpack out and end up sitting ontop of it in the chair. wait the hour and a half in the dark. Didn't bump any animals coming in so that was good. I had a feeling he was going to come in....some kind of knowing that it wasn't an if but a when. Feeder goes off at 7:05 and 2 doe come into feed, followed by another one. I can hear a few bulls bugling off in the distance. Around 7:30 all the does look behind the feeder, as the sun was just coming over the hills I see antlers coming into view. it was like something from a movie. Heart starts beating and I start giving myself the calm down pep talk. he walks to the left of the feeder and starts sniffing the air...I was worried about the wind, out of the north its marginal, out of the northwest its no Bueno at all, (he happened to come from a different direction than last time and I think that may have saved me). he is sniffing and begins to stomp his hoof...i'm thinking this is it he is gonna blow and take off. the does are still eating as if nothing is happening. all of a sudden he drops his head and starts to feed, then snaps it back up again sniffing the air. he turns around and takes a few steps then stops. I figure he isn't going to hang around as he knows something is up so I draw back and settle the pin behind his shoulder. I hit the trigger on the release and see the arrow sail into his ribcage, he jumps like a bucking bronc and spins around and high tails it. After a few seconds I hear him crash.
I give it a few min, then I go retrieve my arrow, which was laying right next to where I shot him, covered in blood. I start walking down the trail and find him laying on the edge of the tree line about 100 yards away.
After a few pics, getting him into the truck and to the taxi, it comes to light that he is a unique specimen and maybe I should have him scored.
My taxi is a scorer for SCI and he tapes him out at 119" SCI and 112 " R.O.E.
We submit it to the record books, which is a bit skewed as they did away with the 3 subspecies each having their own category and are now all lumped into one. Anyone who knows sika know that there are commonly 3 very distinct subspecies, with the Japanese being the smallest, followed by the much larger Dybowski and Manchurian. They also don't have separate catagories for high fence and low fence. As it sits now, he will rank No. 154 all time in North America ( competing against Dybowski, Manchurian and Their crosses) and No. 21 All time bow killed. Europe has its own category for Jap Sika and if you put him in there he comes in at No. 17 and No. 1 bow killed. Their minimums are also a lot lower to reflect the Japanese line.
I wonder what he would rank as all time Bow killed Free Range Japanese Sika....its anybody's guess.
He is a heck of a deer, probably the prettiest animal I have ever taken
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