last year my wife and i had a big 9pt come by in mid Oct. I had seen the deer the year before and though he was already big enough to be the #2 buck in our ranch record book, it was decided to pass him up and hope he slipped by the neighbors for the next 3 months.
as luck was on our side he made it and did put on about 10" of horn despite the lack of good rains we had seen the year before. this year my brother was the first to see him and decided to take the shot.
about 6 hours and many hundreds yards trailing later we had to call off the search. the buck was lost. we sat around trying to convince ourselves that he had not shot the big 9 and that maybe it was a different deer. but he assured us it had been that deer.
so as thanksgiving approached I had resolved to take the first good mature buck I saw and try to not end the year empty handed. hunting was slow, but the weather was changing fast. a big front blowing cold and wet had the deer moving.
I took my 7 year old daughter out to the blind with me for the evening hunt as she is all about dolls and deer.
the deer where moving early and we had a doe and nice young buck feeding and chasing around us only minutes after getting settled in.
at around 4 oclock as i was busy videoing the small buck and his girl friend my daughter excitedly whisped "Daddy, Big Buck! Big Buck!"
I looked over to where she was pointing and there sure was a big buck coming. and to make it more interesting... he was limping
a quick check through the trees with the binos and it was confirmed... the big 9 point was alive, and headed our way.
from there the story slows down, a shot at 16-17 yards across the top of the heart, watching him fall in sight, and getting to close the book on another great management story on a buck that didn't get away.
as luck was on our side he made it and did put on about 10" of horn despite the lack of good rains we had seen the year before. this year my brother was the first to see him and decided to take the shot.
about 6 hours and many hundreds yards trailing later we had to call off the search. the buck was lost. we sat around trying to convince ourselves that he had not shot the big 9 and that maybe it was a different deer. but he assured us it had been that deer.
so as thanksgiving approached I had resolved to take the first good mature buck I saw and try to not end the year empty handed. hunting was slow, but the weather was changing fast. a big front blowing cold and wet had the deer moving.
I took my 7 year old daughter out to the blind with me for the evening hunt as she is all about dolls and deer.
the deer where moving early and we had a doe and nice young buck feeding and chasing around us only minutes after getting settled in.
at around 4 oclock as i was busy videoing the small buck and his girl friend my daughter excitedly whisped "Daddy, Big Buck! Big Buck!"
I looked over to where she was pointing and there sure was a big buck coming. and to make it more interesting... he was limping
a quick check through the trees with the binos and it was confirmed... the big 9 point was alive, and headed our way.
from there the story slows down, a shot at 16-17 yards across the top of the heart, watching him fall in sight, and getting to close the book on another great management story on a buck that didn't get away.
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