Or more like buck of my life time. SORRY for the long post.
My wife killed her best buck ever a few weeks ago on our place we bought last Feb. We had watched both these deer grow over the summer. She had named this buck I killed big boy. We both had him at less than 20 yards during bow season, but he didn't present a shot we felt comfortable with. Twice I had him at 20 yards or less,but couldn't seal the deal. He was at 30 yards at one point & perfect,but I felt he was alerted & didn't want to take a chance on wounding him. All three times he would finally just walk off. Never run etc, just calmly turn and walk away. We get there Weds for Thanksgiving & hadn't seen him on camera for 2-3 weeks. Figured neighbor got him or he was off chasing does. Thurs wind was howling & I asked my son which stand he wanted. He picked & I mentioned Sw as we call it. He said wind is blowing straight at feeder from blind. I told him keep windows closed. He went to the other blind. I knew I couldn't bow hunt there either, wind was wrong for both blinds. So I took the rifle & figured maybe a pig would show. Had a small 8 come out as soon as I sat down. He was feeding on road & walked right through the wind twice & never paid attention to the stand. Feeder went off & I had 2 bucks feeding downwind. Never got spooky etc. I looked through the brush & saw a good deer coming & picked up my binos. As soon as I hit him I knew it was big boy. He walked out by feeder & I am still thinking ,it is him. I haven't got excited in years over a whitetail, but my heart was thumping. I NEVER expected to see him on a set up like today. LOL! As I was trying to open the window quietly he was standing behind a mesquite. When I eased the rifle out he looked right at me. My heart sank. He got me. I had a clear neck shot ,but didn't want that shot. After what seemed like a looong time he started stepping out. As soon as his shoulder cleared the tree I let one go. Saw the mule kick & heard the thump. He ran right at me & I could see it was a fatal shot. He was running & falling sideways. He fell 30 yards from me. I still couldn't believe he was down. Texted the wife & said I just got Big Boy. She asked if I had tracked him yet, I told her he fell right in front of me. She was on the way. As I walked up to him there wasn't any ground shrinkage. I gave up a prayer & honored a great animal. I had 2 things I was sad about as I contemplated what had just happened. One was the killing of a great buck & wishing my son had picked that blind. Her buck had weighed 218 lbs & Big Boy was a bigger bodied animal over the summer ,but in 3 weeks he had lost alot of weight. You could see his backbone & he wasn't layered in fat like hers was. He weighed about 182 live weight. I was thinking he might go 160 ,but I have always scored low. The next morning I met up with Chance Love to get him caped & let Chance do the taxidermy work. Chance's first words when I texted him a pic was Holy Sheet, are you kidding me. When Chance got through scoring him & said the score, I actually thought he scored wrong ,but I watched him record everything. All I can say is WOW! I never thought he was this caliber of deer. Total score was 179 6/8. It is still hard for me to take it all in. My buddies were telling me you had a deer like this around & you were chasing ducks on the place instead of hunting this deer. Told them ducks are 1st. LOL! We were TRULY blessed this Thanksgiving on our place. Son got a pig that morning, I killed a few ducks at one of my ponds & then that evening I got the deer of my life time. To finish off the weekend we had a good wad of ducks move on to one of the ponds & we killed limits the last morning there.
Here are some pics of the weekend.
My wife killed her best buck ever a few weeks ago on our place we bought last Feb. We had watched both these deer grow over the summer. She had named this buck I killed big boy. We both had him at less than 20 yards during bow season, but he didn't present a shot we felt comfortable with. Twice I had him at 20 yards or less,but couldn't seal the deal. He was at 30 yards at one point & perfect,but I felt he was alerted & didn't want to take a chance on wounding him. All three times he would finally just walk off. Never run etc, just calmly turn and walk away. We get there Weds for Thanksgiving & hadn't seen him on camera for 2-3 weeks. Figured neighbor got him or he was off chasing does. Thurs wind was howling & I asked my son which stand he wanted. He picked & I mentioned Sw as we call it. He said wind is blowing straight at feeder from blind. I told him keep windows closed. He went to the other blind. I knew I couldn't bow hunt there either, wind was wrong for both blinds. So I took the rifle & figured maybe a pig would show. Had a small 8 come out as soon as I sat down. He was feeding on road & walked right through the wind twice & never paid attention to the stand. Feeder went off & I had 2 bucks feeding downwind. Never got spooky etc. I looked through the brush & saw a good deer coming & picked up my binos. As soon as I hit him I knew it was big boy. He walked out by feeder & I am still thinking ,it is him. I haven't got excited in years over a whitetail, but my heart was thumping. I NEVER expected to see him on a set up like today. LOL! As I was trying to open the window quietly he was standing behind a mesquite. When I eased the rifle out he looked right at me. My heart sank. He got me. I had a clear neck shot ,but didn't want that shot. After what seemed like a looong time he started stepping out. As soon as his shoulder cleared the tree I let one go. Saw the mule kick & heard the thump. He ran right at me & I could see it was a fatal shot. He was running & falling sideways. He fell 30 yards from me. I still couldn't believe he was down. Texted the wife & said I just got Big Boy. She asked if I had tracked him yet, I told her he fell right in front of me. She was on the way. As I walked up to him there wasn't any ground shrinkage. I gave up a prayer & honored a great animal. I had 2 things I was sad about as I contemplated what had just happened. One was the killing of a great buck & wishing my son had picked that blind. Her buck had weighed 218 lbs & Big Boy was a bigger bodied animal over the summer ,but in 3 weeks he had lost alot of weight. You could see his backbone & he wasn't layered in fat like hers was. He weighed about 182 live weight. I was thinking he might go 160 ,but I have always scored low. The next morning I met up with Chance Love to get him caped & let Chance do the taxidermy work. Chance's first words when I texted him a pic was Holy Sheet, are you kidding me. When Chance got through scoring him & said the score, I actually thought he scored wrong ,but I watched him record everything. All I can say is WOW! I never thought he was this caliber of deer. Total score was 179 6/8. It is still hard for me to take it all in. My buddies were telling me you had a deer like this around & you were chasing ducks on the place instead of hunting this deer. Told them ducks are 1st. LOL! We were TRULY blessed this Thanksgiving on our place. Son got a pig that morning, I killed a few ducks at one of my ponds & then that evening I got the deer of my life time. To finish off the weekend we had a good wad of ducks move on to one of the ponds & we killed limits the last morning there.
Here are some pics of the weekend.
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