jwittkopp

UPDATE: Well I met with the Official P&Y Scorer last night and my rack posted the following: 12 Scorable Points 18" Inside 157 3/8 Gross 147 3/8 Net What a wonderful experience this whole thing has been. Thank God for creating Whitetails. Now it's time to think about food plots for next year!

I am going with the McKenzie 8400 Series which is a semi upright off set. I went with the left turn. My brother has this mount on his 14 pt and it looks really nice with big bodied deer. I was considering a pedestal but decided not to due to space. The next 11 months will be restless. I can't wait to add him to the group!

Update: Met with the taxidermist and he was pushing a pedestal form for my buck. I chose the McKenzie 8400 series which is a large profile wall mount but now am having second thoughts. Have any of you guys gone with a pedestal mount on your deer and if so were you pleased with the results? We are kind of hurting for room in the house, so I was planning on sticking him on the wall with the rest. Also, he is going to give me the horns back so that I can meet with an official scorer and have him entered into the books. I am pretty excited. Need to wait another 30 days for drying. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

Our season was so/so. Deer sightings are down this year for sure. I put 8 solid days in the woods and saw 27 deer with 16 of those coming on opening day. In all passed up 4 little bucks and harvested one doe for our stinking earn-a -buck program. Total group count is 18 hunters spread over 4 areas with 4 bucks, 3 doe and 1 button buck harvested. Largest buck was 120". Many of the guys saw nothing. DRN is blaming this and that but we truly feel it is solely the result of many seasons with the Earn-a-Buck program. It has been a real slaughter house. Really sad to see all of the doe and fawns hammered just to earn a sticker so a guy can harvest a buck. At this rate we will be lucky to see any deer within the next coupe of years. We don't have many wolves in our area and the winters have not been very harsh. Low sightings is the result of human intervention with Mother Nature. it will be real interesting to see what the final numbers are for the season and what the DNR has to say about it.

My dream to harvest a P&Y finally came true. I have harvested other 130" class deer with a gun but never had an encounter with the bow. Well this guy showed up at 3:00 on Saturday afternoon. He presented a tricky shot as he was quartering towards me at 15 yards but I took my time and smoked him. Nothing like hearing that crash within 50 yards. From sight to sound it was over in less than 15 seconds although it seemed like forever in slow motion. He is a mainframe 11 Point with an additional sticker of off the left beam. 12 points total with a green Gross Score of 155.0" with an inside spread of 18.0". Longest tine is the L-G2 at 10.75". Mass at the base is 5.25". I have been hunting for 19 years and have never had a 150 class in my sights until Saturday. Thank God that I could pull it off. Having my Dad nearby to enjoy the victory was priceless. He introduced me to hunting at an early age and we have shared many memories along the way. This one is the icing on the cake. All of the pre-season hard work and hours in the tree truly paid off. We have been letting the little ones go and our success in recent years has proved that QDMA does work. Thank you for sharing my story.