Congrats on a great deer!
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Helluva deer Tony. Congrats again amigo. How long did the track take with the dog?Comment
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That's a massive hole and looks like it's in the right spot. Big congrats on a bruiser!Comment
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About time. Sheesh.
Congrats!! He’s a beaut!Comment
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Originally posted by Gumbo Man View Post
Maybe 10-15 min from when we dropped til I had my hands on him.
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Originally posted by Chew View Post
Not sure a coon or something didn’t get to that hole last night. It was big and lot of trauma to that area though when skinned.
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Originally posted by Sleepy View Post
No lie!! Finally. Now if this power ball will go ahead and hit.
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Appreciate everyone. Still on cloud 9! I’ll post a story later when I get caught up.
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Very nice indeed! Glad to hear you will enter him in TBGA. We are making a push to get more entries this year. Was his left eye blind when you shot him? It looks a little messed up. The trail cam pics showed him to be okay and glowing still. Maybe a stick during the death run. Congrats again man, great deer.Originally posted by Tshelly View PostComment
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Congratulations again Tony!
And I agree with Jshouse. Only thing that buck has been weak on recently was, weak at the knees when he was going down.
Proud for you buddy!Comment
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The Good, Bad & Ugly Live ETX 22’-23’
Originally posted by Hsbtgarcia View Post
Thanks man! Scavengers over night got to him I think
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Congrats!Comment
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Nice buck! CongratsComment
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Congrats Tony!Comment
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The story for the deer we named Donkey. Early May we caught a deer with a great start along a slough. A month later I got a video of a wide deer with big brows in a pasture. 2 months later in late July I finally got a 3 photo burst of him cutting through a fence gap. I quickly zeroed in on him as target #1 after that. I’ve always been a frame guy and he guy had it. I constantly moved cams around but up until mid September we really never got another good pic. We threw up a new stand in some oaks in early October on hand corn and quickly had 10-15 does in there. Once we found this new spot we started getting Donkey maybe twice a week checking the does and on the corn at night. He certainly did not like a camera in his face. You could tell he was old and spooky. I guess we probably hunted the stand around 4 to 5 times for this deer, killed 1 spooky doe. I moved the stand twice and finally found a good tree that was difficult for the deer to get behind us on. So I switched out my portable set for a permanent one that set us a touch higher last week. This slight adjustment almost cost me. I never drew and practiced my shots ahead of time after adjusting the set. There was a limb that I hung my bow on that came into play at the shot that we will get to later.
So fast forward to the weekend and the incoming cold front on Monday. Luckily I own my own home inspection business and I try to schedule my inspections around good weather in the hunting season if possible, so I worked through the weekend in preparation for a few days of grinding. Some of the podcast I listen to were calling this a top 3 to 4 cold front of the year due to the timing, moon, etc… I was really hoping to get after Donkey before the rut because I knew with his summer randomness rut hunting this particular deer was going to be frustrating most likely.
Monday am the rain was steady until daylight. The set we called burr oak was not what I would call a good morning stand. You would have some late morning movement but it was sporadic. That being said the only daylight action we had of Donkey in season was 200 yards away at 8:30 am on Oct 6th, so there was still an off chance he might come through after daylight. Around 8 a lone doe came in then spooked off after about 10 min in the corn. A few does and 1 racked buck in the distance. I jumped out by 9:30. Made a camera and corn run then a quick trip to town. I laid down for a nap around 2 with my alarm set for 330. I woke up around 2:30 and saw a new young buck at my spot. It was enough that get me going. I was up after that, got dressed and slipped in by 3:30. I knew it was going to be a long sit but the does like to come in pretty early evening. It was pretty slow til around 5pm when some does started coming across the pasture to me. They hung up eating acorns with a few coming to corn. I probably had 6 does in the corn under me and 3 or 4 eating acorns in the pasture. Everything went on alert in my corn and the young 8 that was in early midday come easing in. He is lightly grunting and tearing up a tree. He comes in after about 10 min of messing around and starts eating corn. For the next hour it seems like I have deer moving in an out of my corn. I probably over trimmed my lanes to shoot through but I have an innate fear of leaving that one limb that costs me. It’s a delicate battle of too much or too little. This stand had decent back cover and I sit facing the corn in order to lower my profile. I guess around 6:45 some of the does got to chasing each other around off the corn and this fired up the big brow 8 on my corn. He let out a loud buuurrrrrpp and chased everything into the field. It gets chaotic and everything runs around. Does and the young buck start filtering back in. I’ve had deer under me for around an hour or two now and I’m paying attention but just not really expecting it to happen. I glance through an oak branch and can see a buck coming from the pasture side into my corn. Immediately it registers bigger deer and I put my hand on my bow. He hits another opening and no doubt it’s my target deer. Now my bow is in hand. He is around 26 yards behind some limbs making a scrape. I expected him come into the corn and scent check the does scattering them. This in my mind was going to be my shot with all the deer in the area, the chaos would allow me to get drawn but he didn’t really do that. He finished the scrape and kind of peels back into the pasture. He is now entering my corn broadside but at the back of my shooting area and to my right. I have a good friend that has bow hunted for 30 years and he always told me to take the first good shot opportunity you have on a shooter buck with your bow because you never really know what will happen. This old buck as soon as he gets into my open shooting lane looks up dead nuts at me. Takes a bite of corn then back up at me, repeat and rinse for the next minute or two of him giving me the stare down. Every time he looks up, his frame dwarfs his body and all I can see is how tiny his ears look. I also divert my eyes down and to the left every time he stares at me. My grandpas told me to never look em in the eye when deer is staring at you, I don’t know if it helps or not but I stick to that rule on bucks especially. I’m shooting an adjustable 1 pin sight that’s set at 25 yards currently. I got a quick range on the buck and he is broadside 33 yards. I roll up and decide now or never. I’m about to extend my bow and put tension on the string when I do a quick scan of all the deer around me. I’m scanning left to right and as I get just past the buck I spot her. The anti christ remade. A young doe giving me that head bob from hell. And then she raises her foot and I know it’s coming, she let’s out the loudest blow I ever heard. Everything kind of jumped and scattered except for the buck. He kind of just looked at her like what now. By now this deer blowing and darkness setting in almost all the deer start leaving my corn and heading to pasture and acorns. A minute goes by and I now have my buck underneath me at around 28 yards but he is facing me. He has never stopped checking me out either. He takes a bite then looks up. I honestly never re ranged after the 33. I scrolled back down to 25 and knew with my height and where he was at I would be good to go. I had a grim reaper expandable on so I knew I had to stay out of his shoulder bone. I was looking for any type of opening and he slowly gave it to me. There was an oak tree between us that blocked his head. He took two small steps forward and turned. I’m my mind after watching him head on for 5 minutes this deer was broadside lol. In reality he was maybe at 45 degree angle to me. All I knew was I had enough to make the shot. One last second scan for the anti christ and I ripped it back. There’s still a surreal moment in my mind when I finally get drawn on a mature buck just because it so hard to get to that position. As I break over and my back elbow hits the limb behind me that surreal moment becomes pure panic. I need to lean to my right to shoot around this big oak tree somewhat blocking the bucks view but in doing so my arm in the v of this tree can’t go any further. I’m guessing I’m around 20 seconds drawn and there’s no way I can shoot with back against the tree. So I lean forward and out to my right as far as I can. My pin floats into the pocket of his leg and I squeeze off. I see what I think is the arrow disappear into his shoulder. The buck bellows and it dang near knocks him to the ground as he spins back the way he had come. I can tell his left shoulder is not working correctly and after 40 yards or so he peels back to the left into the woods. I hop down to try and see my arrow real quick. Complete pass through, gut matter and decent blood at impact. I’m still jacked. Can barely talk to a couple buddies I call. Back out and time to wait. I knew I hammered this deer but I was just unsure of angle and height of the arrow placement. We waited 2 hours and slip back in to the blood. It was not an easy track but it was not difficult either. We take it about 150 yards and the ground evens out and the blood slows way down. I’m only getting blood out the entry so I know my exit is plugged. With the quality of deer I was not risking anything so I called Dustin and Danny. They both told me we need to wait til morning. We all agree it’s 1 lung, liver and gut. I was worried sick but I also knew and felt like I had made a gut shot on the deer. It was just a matter of finding him. He was going to be dead I thought.
Danny arrives at daylight. 30 head of hogs and numerous deer through that area where I shot all night. We get to hit sight and Rip just kind of starts drifting doing his thing. We hit the woods shot 40 yard from the hit and the dog opens up as a deer jumps up right in front of him. Rip checked him to make sure it wasn’t the wounded deer then he was back with us in less than a minute back down the blood he goes. We get to the last blood of the night and I slow way down to try and see what I can pick up. Danny and the dog head on down the creek bank. It hasn’t been 5 min and I’m getting a call from Danny. He has got him. A flood of emotions hit, it’s such a roller coaster emotions from the initial shot until actually putting my hands on him. Probably a lot more I could say but that’s about all I can come up with. He grossed 148 5/8”, 19 inches wide and I would guess him to be 6.5 yr old plus. We are not real sure on his history. This is definitely why I deer hunt. This is the third pretty big deer I’ve killed. My other two were pretty random, not much history. This is the first big one where it all came together. He was the goal and the plan that was put in place finally worked. Thanks for reading. I don’t really have anything of his stature locked in to go for somewhere else but it’s not going to stop me. On to the next one.
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