Friday morning, Oct 6th I started out my 2017 archery season with my biggest buck ever. I'll be following this post with pictures from my phone.
This buck had a total of 12 pts and was 18'' inside with tons of heavy mass! I age him at 5.5yrs old. Bottom jaw teeth looked to be confirming. Difficult to determine precise score due to the palmation, the first 2 scores carry him over 160''. NO ONE guessed that. Everyone I asked, agreed 145-150. Frankly, that was my estimate too. I'm having multiple folks with experience score him, everyone gets different totals.
He was only a 9pt in 2016. I referred to him as "Freak 9". I've had a lot of history with this buck. 2016 was the year that he stuck around a lot. The first 5 minutes into my first bow hunt in 2016 he was 5 yards underneath me and allowed me to take some good photos of him and observe. I have thousands of game camera photos from Sept 2016 through March 2017. I saw him countless times for the rest of 2016 season. I'll follow up with 2016 photos. You may notice something I did not, until this 2017 season, he has little to no tail.
I anxiously looked forward to seeing him in 2017, I even moved a protein feeder that I kept up with all spring and summer long. He showed up once at the beginning, looked at it and never came and ate from it all summer long, though it was only 50 yards from where I hunt and always have photos of him. All his younger buddies ate from it, but not him. However, that one photo of him looking at the protein feeder, I had no idea it was him because his antlers were in the first stages of development, it was only until after getting my first few game camera photos of him fully developed until I put the two together. I'd have never guessed he went from a odd looking 9pt scoring no more than 105-110, if that, to what he became this year!
He frequented the area, mornings, noon, evenings and nights. I wasn't surprised, as I knew this deer. He was always around! So I knew, there was no rush and that I could take my time and enjoy it.
I filmed this buck Thursday morning, Oct 5 for an hour only 20 yards or less from me as I admired him from the tree upon which my hang on stand is in. I mainly wanted to see this buck in person to see if the game camera pics held up. They did, however, that rack just keeps on growing to me. I did not hunt Thursday evening, decided Friday morning seemed better.
It was actually probably one of the worst, most difficult, high anxiety, and unfortunate turn of events I've ever had in the field bow hunting and I wish it upon no one. I don't wish to go into detail or revisit it. I self film my bow hunts, when I can. The film gave me some relief as to why my shot was further back. I did not stop this buck with a "MEH" prior to shooting. He was grazing, 5 other bucks around, nothing spooky, everything calm.
My mistake was not poor shot placement, but it was in not stopping him. I thought the buck was stopped. I was wrong. The video shows him taking an extremely brief pause as he continued grazing, but nonetheless he still had forward momentum causing my 15yard shot to be further back than it should have been. LESSON LEARNED. STOP THE BUCK. Another personal lesson, all those 8'' groups of practicing 70/80/90 yards are good and all, and for a specific hunt at LANWR again this year, but they don't prepare you for those up close and personal shots. Perhaps this lesson of mine can help a future archer, or at least rejog a memory and knock the dust off some at the beginning of this season.
I've got 4 public archery hunts this season, GEWMA, LANWR, NSWMA, & CHAP. The bar is set pretty high, but to each hunt its own. Hopefully, the success continues and I can share more of it with fellow TBH's!
Cheers!
This buck had a total of 12 pts and was 18'' inside with tons of heavy mass! I age him at 5.5yrs old. Bottom jaw teeth looked to be confirming. Difficult to determine precise score due to the palmation, the first 2 scores carry him over 160''. NO ONE guessed that. Everyone I asked, agreed 145-150. Frankly, that was my estimate too. I'm having multiple folks with experience score him, everyone gets different totals.
He was only a 9pt in 2016. I referred to him as "Freak 9". I've had a lot of history with this buck. 2016 was the year that he stuck around a lot. The first 5 minutes into my first bow hunt in 2016 he was 5 yards underneath me and allowed me to take some good photos of him and observe. I have thousands of game camera photos from Sept 2016 through March 2017. I saw him countless times for the rest of 2016 season. I'll follow up with 2016 photos. You may notice something I did not, until this 2017 season, he has little to no tail.
I anxiously looked forward to seeing him in 2017, I even moved a protein feeder that I kept up with all spring and summer long. He showed up once at the beginning, looked at it and never came and ate from it all summer long, though it was only 50 yards from where I hunt and always have photos of him. All his younger buddies ate from it, but not him. However, that one photo of him looking at the protein feeder, I had no idea it was him because his antlers were in the first stages of development, it was only until after getting my first few game camera photos of him fully developed until I put the two together. I'd have never guessed he went from a odd looking 9pt scoring no more than 105-110, if that, to what he became this year!
He frequented the area, mornings, noon, evenings and nights. I wasn't surprised, as I knew this deer. He was always around! So I knew, there was no rush and that I could take my time and enjoy it.
I filmed this buck Thursday morning, Oct 5 for an hour only 20 yards or less from me as I admired him from the tree upon which my hang on stand is in. I mainly wanted to see this buck in person to see if the game camera pics held up. They did, however, that rack just keeps on growing to me. I did not hunt Thursday evening, decided Friday morning seemed better.
It was actually probably one of the worst, most difficult, high anxiety, and unfortunate turn of events I've ever had in the field bow hunting and I wish it upon no one. I don't wish to go into detail or revisit it. I self film my bow hunts, when I can. The film gave me some relief as to why my shot was further back. I did not stop this buck with a "MEH" prior to shooting. He was grazing, 5 other bucks around, nothing spooky, everything calm.
My mistake was not poor shot placement, but it was in not stopping him. I thought the buck was stopped. I was wrong. The video shows him taking an extremely brief pause as he continued grazing, but nonetheless he still had forward momentum causing my 15yard shot to be further back than it should have been. LESSON LEARNED. STOP THE BUCK. Another personal lesson, all those 8'' groups of practicing 70/80/90 yards are good and all, and for a specific hunt at LANWR again this year, but they don't prepare you for those up close and personal shots. Perhaps this lesson of mine can help a future archer, or at least rejog a memory and knock the dust off some at the beginning of this season.
I've got 4 public archery hunts this season, GEWMA, LANWR, NSWMA, & CHAP. The bar is set pretty high, but to each hunt its own. Hopefully, the success continues and I can share more of it with fellow TBH's!
Cheers!
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