Back in 2019 I had a beautiful framed slick 8 that I was able to watch most times at the ranch. He was nothing special, just a nice looking 4ish year old buck. One of those bucks you hoped would survive a few more seasons.
2020 came around and I had a big framed 9 point show up on camera that I wasn’t real sure who it was. He was big, bigger than anything I’d killed before, but I couldn’t age him passed 5. In November, my best friend came to the ranch to sit with me and this big framed buck came right in to the hand corn. He spent probably 30 minutes inside 25 yards, and I was able to get a lot of video and good pictures of him. My buddy thought I should kill him, but I usually shoot my bucks at 6+ so I said I’d give him one more season. This is when I named him “Off Limits” so that everyone knew to let him go. He lived in the middle of the ranch, but traveled to the edge of two neighbors quite often. I’m sure he spent some time over there as well. I saw him throughout the season, and my mom watched him as well a few times. He ended up breaking off about half his beam, and thankfully he survived the season.
2021 comes around and he’s on camera where he always has been. I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed how he looked for most the summer. I thought he’d really pop this year. Come July, we get 6” of rain and he really finishes strong. I still can’t tell if he’s bigger than he was the year before, but now his right main beam corkscrews straight down and he looks pretty impressive. We still think he’s a 135-140” deer, but now I don’t care. He’d still be my best buck with any weapon, and WAY bigger than anything I’ve ever killed with a bow. I think he’s 6 this year and decide he’s going to be my target buck for the season.
Opening morning I hunt a blind he sometimes goes to, but not as often as another blind. Honestly I hoped he wasn’t going to come in, because I needed to do some last second work on my cattle panel blind. Thankfully he doesn’t show, and I’m able to work on getting my main blind ready once I finish my morning hunt. Over lunch, my buddy decides he wants to come hunt with me so he can film and I can just worry about releasing a good arrow. We cut some cedar to brush the blind in a little better, and then spend some time checking cameras to wait on 4pm. We were running late, but at 4:15 we crest the hill on the way to the blind and spot around 5 bucks already on the hand corn, within 25 yards of the blind…. and one of them is Off Limits. We decide that we need to try and push them off with the Mule, and then hustle into the blind. It took a little more effort to push them off than what I liked, and all the bucks booked it over the hill the opposite direction. We get in the blind, get everything set up, and put out some more corn.
We have deer in front of us instantly, but after an hour I finally see that group of bucks making their way back in. “Off Limits” spends most of his time pushing all the other bucks and does off the hand corn, and I’m able to get a few good pictures of him while my buddy videos. I wanted to make sure I got some good pictures of him before I decided to release an arrow. Around 10 minutes later, I let him get around 23 yards away and aim real low in case he drops at the sound of the shot. Sure enough, he never drops, and the Grim Reaper slashes his heart low in the chest cavity. Blood is gushing everywhere as he makes it around 80-100 yards and falls over behind a bush, out of camera view.
My buddy and I are losing our mind in the blind with lots of fist bumps and texts sent out. We give it about 10-15 minutes and as soon as we step out of the blind we can already see him laying there. He looks bigger than what we thought from the pictures, but you really don’t know what he is until you stretch a tape. We took a couple measurements after about 100 photos, and realize he should be over 140”, we don’t really care, but at the same time we get the feeling he may be a little more special than we originally thought.
The next day I tally up all the measurements and come up with 149 3/8”… I’m shocked! The right beam is over 25”, and he has right around 30” of mass which is pretty crazy for a low fence Mason Co deer. He also already broke off the tip of his left G2. I’ve never shot a “trophy” off this property, just tons of does and 6+ year old bucks without much headgear. To me, any buck is a “trophy” when he’s mature, no matter what he scores. I do have to admit though, it is nice to shoot one that I’m going to shoulder mount as well.
Sorry for the lengthy write up, here’s what everyone is looking for:
2020 came around and I had a big framed 9 point show up on camera that I wasn’t real sure who it was. He was big, bigger than anything I’d killed before, but I couldn’t age him passed 5. In November, my best friend came to the ranch to sit with me and this big framed buck came right in to the hand corn. He spent probably 30 minutes inside 25 yards, and I was able to get a lot of video and good pictures of him. My buddy thought I should kill him, but I usually shoot my bucks at 6+ so I said I’d give him one more season. This is when I named him “Off Limits” so that everyone knew to let him go. He lived in the middle of the ranch, but traveled to the edge of two neighbors quite often. I’m sure he spent some time over there as well. I saw him throughout the season, and my mom watched him as well a few times. He ended up breaking off about half his beam, and thankfully he survived the season.
2021 comes around and he’s on camera where he always has been. I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed how he looked for most the summer. I thought he’d really pop this year. Come July, we get 6” of rain and he really finishes strong. I still can’t tell if he’s bigger than he was the year before, but now his right main beam corkscrews straight down and he looks pretty impressive. We still think he’s a 135-140” deer, but now I don’t care. He’d still be my best buck with any weapon, and WAY bigger than anything I’ve ever killed with a bow. I think he’s 6 this year and decide he’s going to be my target buck for the season.
Opening morning I hunt a blind he sometimes goes to, but not as often as another blind. Honestly I hoped he wasn’t going to come in, because I needed to do some last second work on my cattle panel blind. Thankfully he doesn’t show, and I’m able to work on getting my main blind ready once I finish my morning hunt. Over lunch, my buddy decides he wants to come hunt with me so he can film and I can just worry about releasing a good arrow. We cut some cedar to brush the blind in a little better, and then spend some time checking cameras to wait on 4pm. We were running late, but at 4:15 we crest the hill on the way to the blind and spot around 5 bucks already on the hand corn, within 25 yards of the blind…. and one of them is Off Limits. We decide that we need to try and push them off with the Mule, and then hustle into the blind. It took a little more effort to push them off than what I liked, and all the bucks booked it over the hill the opposite direction. We get in the blind, get everything set up, and put out some more corn.
We have deer in front of us instantly, but after an hour I finally see that group of bucks making their way back in. “Off Limits” spends most of his time pushing all the other bucks and does off the hand corn, and I’m able to get a few good pictures of him while my buddy videos. I wanted to make sure I got some good pictures of him before I decided to release an arrow. Around 10 minutes later, I let him get around 23 yards away and aim real low in case he drops at the sound of the shot. Sure enough, he never drops, and the Grim Reaper slashes his heart low in the chest cavity. Blood is gushing everywhere as he makes it around 80-100 yards and falls over behind a bush, out of camera view.
My buddy and I are losing our mind in the blind with lots of fist bumps and texts sent out. We give it about 10-15 minutes and as soon as we step out of the blind we can already see him laying there. He looks bigger than what we thought from the pictures, but you really don’t know what he is until you stretch a tape. We took a couple measurements after about 100 photos, and realize he should be over 140”, we don’t really care, but at the same time we get the feeling he may be a little more special than we originally thought.
The next day I tally up all the measurements and come up with 149 3/8”… I’m shocked! The right beam is over 25”, and he has right around 30” of mass which is pretty crazy for a low fence Mason Co deer. He also already broke off the tip of his left G2. I’ve never shot a “trophy” off this property, just tons of does and 6+ year old bucks without much headgear. To me, any buck is a “trophy” when he’s mature, no matter what he scores. I do have to admit though, it is nice to shoot one that I’m going to shoulder mount as well.
Sorry for the lengthy write up, here’s what everyone is looking for:
Attached Files
Comment