Tagging out at the house 
WARNING. LONG READ
I started getting pictures of a buck in the summer that I knew was going to easily meet AR requirements and also one I could not identify from previous years
I drove by him behind the house on 4 wheeler in a weed field and he stood perfectly still. I saw him 2 different times while mowing and he calmly walked away (1/4mi apart ). I rode up on him bedded near a “pig pipe” I have out for the hogs entertain themselves and immediately reversed out while he stood and watched. I got all kinds of pics on game cams, some on the place I have hunted for years and some on the property we recently purchased next to us
I saw this deer a lot and watched him fill out and get better thinking the whole time he would probably vanish when the velvet came off.
Then my neighbor that still has cows on the place we bought mentioned he had seen a nice buck by the old home place that has been abandoned and that he thought he had come from the creek bottom he owns on the east side of where he saw him
I posted some pics in the game management section and the consensus was he was a mature deer and I should shoot him
Then the pigs showed up and I stopped getting many pics. I knew he was still around and decided I was shooting pigs unless he showed up
When season started I hunted the morning of Saturdays and the days off I had during the week but the evenings were too hot and Sundays I had obligations at church the first 2 weekends.
I didn’t see much the first several hunts but I knew the odds were good that I would cross paths with him sooner or later
I had a long weekend and there was a front coming in and dropping temps. The kind of weather that makes hunting enjoyable and gets me fired up
I walk from the house about 500yds to my stand. I follow the property line against the woods until it turns east and from there I cross an open pasture for about 100yds.
As I am walking back Friday there is a strong north breeze and as I get about halfway across the opening I sweep the field with my head light and see what I know are 3 sets of deer eyes looking my way. Not uncommon so I keep walking and I sweep back and the eyes are closer.
Now I am about 85-90% across the field and the eyes keep getting closer. I know they cannot smell me now but if I keep going they will cross behind me and smell me for sure and probably blow out and possibly ruin my morning hunt. So I just stand still because they are getting closer and then I can make out a rack on the closest one and I instantly know that it is my target buck. He keeps coming and will look my way but does not seem to care much about me being there. His smaller companion starts around behind me but changes his mind and turns back to join his buddy. I never got a look at deer #3 but assume it was also a buck. At this point I am standing looking at my target buck at less than 10yds and he just acts like I am not even there.
Of course this is all happening around 0615 and no where near legal time which is around 0653
I am thinking any minute this is all going to blow up and I will probably not see this buck again but they all wander off to the north and I very slowly and quietly move toward my stand and have to run a pretty good sized boar off the feeder too
Some single pigs come and go with no shot opportunities and then a group moves in and I pick out a sow squeeze off a shot and hit her in Buff’s notorious middle/middle (midway up and midway back) and she exits with arrow sticking out both sides. Gave her some time and checked radar and rain was closing in. I looked and followed decent blood for about 100yds before it abruptly quit. I made a few circles looking for
More but it started to rain so I wrote her off
I decided to throw up a ground blind and have a place to get out of the weather. I hunted it that afternoon and the next morning. The pigs didn’t mind it but the deer were very leery and I figured that would probably bite me with the buck but at this point just let things settle and hope they didn’t change their habits.
Saturday I was back in the tree and not much happened.
Sunday morning I was back in the tree and all I saw was a button buck.
Spent some time on the tractor mowing weeds and was back in the tree by 1600
At 1605 I notice movement and there is a small 8, maybe 2 years old, vaccuming up acorns. He looks like the sidekick to the buck I am after but he is all alone. He leaves and I notice a monarch, then another, and another and sit there thinking about what a trip they make. Slew texts me and asks if I have seen anything new and I answer not yet and lay the phone down.
When I look up I see a deer coming my way from the opposite direction I think he would come from. And I quickly see that it is THE buck I am looking for. My heart rate goes up, I pick my bow up and as he slowly works his way to me I try and calm myself. He gets where I want him, I draw, he turns and I put the pin tight behind his shoulder, WAIT, think about your form, start over, Bend at the waist, now burn that pin into the spot and s q e e z e
THWACK
He spins and I see a lot of blood
But something is not right at all, there is 24” of a 28” arrow hanging out the side it was shot into
I think I am going to puke as he runs for the woods
Text dad and let him know I will probably need tracking help, gather my stuff and slip out like a ninja and head back to the house
Wife asks why I am back so early and I tell her what happened
She don’t even hunt and she is firing questions
Did you hit a rib that stopped the arrow?
Was it sharp?
And several more pertinent questions
After about an hour and 15 dad and I head back out for what I figure will be a lengthy track and possibly involve a follow up shot.
Bring the crazy JRT to bay him if needed.
We start where he was standing when I shot and find very little blood but I watched him go about 60yds so we follow the direction and find my arrow covered in blood and when I look up the buck is laying at the edge of the woods dead
What a relief
Apparently he made it just out of sight and fell
16.5” inside
125# dressed
Not the biggest that will be posted on TBH but a nice mature buck
Guess the pigs will feel the heat now
Done in my county
Draw hunt at Richland and segment “B” at the famous H
Also have a few possible places to sit in neighboring counties too
But no excuse to dodge honey do list the wife has either
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
WARNING. LONG READ
I started getting pictures of a buck in the summer that I knew was going to easily meet AR requirements and also one I could not identify from previous years
I drove by him behind the house on 4 wheeler in a weed field and he stood perfectly still. I saw him 2 different times while mowing and he calmly walked away (1/4mi apart ). I rode up on him bedded near a “pig pipe” I have out for the hogs entertain themselves and immediately reversed out while he stood and watched. I got all kinds of pics on game cams, some on the place I have hunted for years and some on the property we recently purchased next to us
I saw this deer a lot and watched him fill out and get better thinking the whole time he would probably vanish when the velvet came off.
Then my neighbor that still has cows on the place we bought mentioned he had seen a nice buck by the old home place that has been abandoned and that he thought he had come from the creek bottom he owns on the east side of where he saw him
I posted some pics in the game management section and the consensus was he was a mature deer and I should shoot him
Then the pigs showed up and I stopped getting many pics. I knew he was still around and decided I was shooting pigs unless he showed up
When season started I hunted the morning of Saturdays and the days off I had during the week but the evenings were too hot and Sundays I had obligations at church the first 2 weekends.
I didn’t see much the first several hunts but I knew the odds were good that I would cross paths with him sooner or later
I had a long weekend and there was a front coming in and dropping temps. The kind of weather that makes hunting enjoyable and gets me fired up
I walk from the house about 500yds to my stand. I follow the property line against the woods until it turns east and from there I cross an open pasture for about 100yds.
As I am walking back Friday there is a strong north breeze and as I get about halfway across the opening I sweep the field with my head light and see what I know are 3 sets of deer eyes looking my way. Not uncommon so I keep walking and I sweep back and the eyes are closer.
Now I am about 85-90% across the field and the eyes keep getting closer. I know they cannot smell me now but if I keep going they will cross behind me and smell me for sure and probably blow out and possibly ruin my morning hunt. So I just stand still because they are getting closer and then I can make out a rack on the closest one and I instantly know that it is my target buck. He keeps coming and will look my way but does not seem to care much about me being there. His smaller companion starts around behind me but changes his mind and turns back to join his buddy. I never got a look at deer #3 but assume it was also a buck. At this point I am standing looking at my target buck at less than 10yds and he just acts like I am not even there.
Of course this is all happening around 0615 and no where near legal time which is around 0653
I am thinking any minute this is all going to blow up and I will probably not see this buck again but they all wander off to the north and I very slowly and quietly move toward my stand and have to run a pretty good sized boar off the feeder too
Some single pigs come and go with no shot opportunities and then a group moves in and I pick out a sow squeeze off a shot and hit her in Buff’s notorious middle/middle (midway up and midway back
) and she exits with arrow sticking out both sides. Gave her some time and checked radar and rain was closing in. I looked and followed decent blood for about 100yds before it abruptly quit. I made a few circles looking forMore but it started to rain so I wrote her off
I decided to throw up a ground blind and have a place to get out of the weather. I hunted it that afternoon and the next morning. The pigs didn’t mind it but the deer were very leery and I figured that would probably bite me with the buck but at this point just let things settle and hope they didn’t change their habits.
Saturday I was back in the tree and not much happened.
Sunday morning I was back in the tree and all I saw was a button buck.
Spent some time on the tractor mowing weeds and was back in the tree by 1600
At 1605 I notice movement and there is a small 8, maybe 2 years old, vaccuming up acorns. He looks like the sidekick to the buck I am after but he is all alone. He leaves and I notice a monarch, then another, and another and sit there thinking about what a trip they make. Slew texts me and asks if I have seen anything new and I answer not yet and lay the phone down.
When I look up I see a deer coming my way from the opposite direction I think he would come from. And I quickly see that it is THE buck I am looking for. My heart rate goes up, I pick my bow up and as he slowly works his way to me I try and calm myself. He gets where I want him, I draw, he turns and I put the pin tight behind his shoulder, WAIT, think about your form, start over, Bend at the waist, now burn that pin into the spot and s q e e z e
THWACK
He spins and I see a lot of blood
But something is not right at all, there is 24” of a 28” arrow hanging out the side it was shot into
I think I am going to puke as he runs for the woods
Text dad and let him know I will probably need tracking help, gather my stuff and slip out like a ninja and head back to the house
Wife asks why I am back so early and I tell her what happened
She don’t even hunt and she is firing questions
Did you hit a rib that stopped the arrow?
Was it sharp?
And several more pertinent questions
After about an hour and 15 dad and I head back out for what I figure will be a lengthy track and possibly involve a follow up shot.
Bring the crazy JRT to bay him if needed.
We start where he was standing when I shot and find very little blood but I watched him go about 60yds so we follow the direction and find my arrow covered in blood and when I look up the buck is laying at the edge of the woods dead
What a relief
Apparently he made it just out of sight and fell
16.5” inside
125# dressed
Not the biggest that will be posted on TBH but a nice mature buck
Guess the pigs will feel the heat now
Done in my county
Draw hunt at Richland and segment “B” at the famous H
Also have a few possible places to sit in neighboring counties too
But no excuse to dodge honey do list the wife has either
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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