So to conclude part one I’ll finish it with my biggest bow buck to date. Let me start off by saying this didn’t happen over night and a lot of work has gone into growing a deer like this. I watched this deer and passed him three times last year as a 4 year old that I thought went upper 30s. I had the hardest season I’ve ever had last year. I watched as several nice up and comers got killed on neighboring properties in Lee county and hunting in mason county was a disaster due to all the acorns. Nothing was going right but I stayed the course and passed him. Each time it got a little harder to watch him walk away as the season end drew closer with every trip.
This was the fourth year I’d watched this deer. I have sheds, hundreds of TC pictures, and encounter after encounter with him. I decided if I got a shot this year I would take it. As the summer pictures began to flood in I started to see what kind of monster he was going to turn into.
His name was turkey foot. He always had a triple split brow on his left side since he was three that looked like a turkeys foot. He had always been a mainframe 9 until this year and threw another g4 on his right side.
After taking a great buck Friday night Saturday came and went with plenty of deer sighting just nothing mature and no turkey foot. Sunday morning I told my wife I would hunt until 9 am then we would load up and head home. She was a trooper. She decided to go with me even though she was getting over being sick and didn’t feel like going to sit in the blind with me like she normally does. At 7:25 I watched a couple young bucks come toward the feeder but stay in the other pasture on the other side of our fence but two does came to my hand corn. Again directly down wind. Thank you krivoman for making awesome blinds. Shortly after I could see legs moving toward the other bucks across the fence but on my side of the fence. I could see it was a big deer and had the distinct red coat that turkey foot always had. The deer acted like he was going to jump the fence three times before he spotted the does on my hand corn.
He turned and started coming my way. At this point I caught my first glimpse of his antlers. There was no mistake. It was him!!! He made a small scrape and raked at some low hanging limbs. I started shaking uncontrollably as he payed his head back and let out one of the loudest grunts I’ve ever heard and charged towards the does. They scattered and he began feeding head on to the blind at 15 yards. I made myself stop looking at his antlers and was still shaking. He fed like like for 5 excruciating minutes. As the does started to work they’re way back to the hand corn a dove fluttered by and spooked them. This was my saving grace because he spooked a little too and gave me a quartering away shot at 18 yards. I went on autopilot. The string came back found my anchor settled the pin and began to roll the hinge release ever so slowly. The shot broke and I watched the arrow blast through his rib cage. He jumped the fence and I heard him start coughing and thought I heard him go down.
I went back to camp where my wife was anxiously waiting and we headed back. We crossed the fence into the other pasture and started tracking. It wasn’t long and I had my hands on him and my wife was there to share the whole thing. What a wonderful moment that was!!!
On the scales he weighed 180 pounds. All that protein had payed off. After I put the tape on him I couldn’t beleive the numbers. I thought he was going to go close to 150. He ended up scoring 164 6/8ths.
This was the fourth year I’d watched this deer. I have sheds, hundreds of TC pictures, and encounter after encounter with him. I decided if I got a shot this year I would take it. As the summer pictures began to flood in I started to see what kind of monster he was going to turn into.
His name was turkey foot. He always had a triple split brow on his left side since he was three that looked like a turkeys foot. He had always been a mainframe 9 until this year and threw another g4 on his right side.
After taking a great buck Friday night Saturday came and went with plenty of deer sighting just nothing mature and no turkey foot. Sunday morning I told my wife I would hunt until 9 am then we would load up and head home. She was a trooper. She decided to go with me even though she was getting over being sick and didn’t feel like going to sit in the blind with me like she normally does. At 7:25 I watched a couple young bucks come toward the feeder but stay in the other pasture on the other side of our fence but two does came to my hand corn. Again directly down wind. Thank you krivoman for making awesome blinds. Shortly after I could see legs moving toward the other bucks across the fence but on my side of the fence. I could see it was a big deer and had the distinct red coat that turkey foot always had. The deer acted like he was going to jump the fence three times before he spotted the does on my hand corn.
He turned and started coming my way. At this point I caught my first glimpse of his antlers. There was no mistake. It was him!!! He made a small scrape and raked at some low hanging limbs. I started shaking uncontrollably as he payed his head back and let out one of the loudest grunts I’ve ever heard and charged towards the does. They scattered and he began feeding head on to the blind at 15 yards. I made myself stop looking at his antlers and was still shaking. He fed like like for 5 excruciating minutes. As the does started to work they’re way back to the hand corn a dove fluttered by and spooked them. This was my saving grace because he spooked a little too and gave me a quartering away shot at 18 yards. I went on autopilot. The string came back found my anchor settled the pin and began to roll the hinge release ever so slowly. The shot broke and I watched the arrow blast through his rib cage. He jumped the fence and I heard him start coughing and thought I heard him go down.
I went back to camp where my wife was anxiously waiting and we headed back. We crossed the fence into the other pasture and started tracking. It wasn’t long and I had my hands on him and my wife was there to share the whole thing. What a wonderful moment that was!!!
On the scales he weighed 180 pounds. All that protein had payed off. After I put the tape on him I couldn’t beleive the numbers. I thought he was going to go close to 150. He ended up scoring 164 6/8ths.
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