Rely guy

Thank you Rhino. I've enjoyed being on here and hearing the stories thus far.

Thank you Hoosier

Yes too_pointer, had a couple taxidermists offer to do him free of charge, apparently hoping for some advertisement business coming from it as a couple magazines have called. So, I looked at their work and went with a local guy that does tremendous work. Having this one done a little different and he won't be a wall mount. Looking forward to seeing how it comes out. As if the hunt and sentimental story doesn't keep running through my mind enough, I keep playing the footage over and over.

More pics of him

I'd like everyone's opinion on the age of this deer. I'm typically pretty good at aging deer, but this one puzzles me. The landowner found sheds this spring of what I thought was this buck. His right beam curled up as does this deer, and the right g2 was forked. The only real difference as far as frame was the left side's g2 on the shed was also forked. I rough scored the sheds at 151 3/8 gross. I suspected that this year, he would be bigger. Even though the pictures didn't show it, I guess I hoped they weren't doing him any justice. I filmed opening weekend of our gun season (Missouri), so Monday the 12th was the first day I hunted myself. I sat in a set 30 yards from where I had gotten all the photos of him. I wasn't particularly hunting just this deer as the neighbor had pictures of 5 bucks in the 145-160 range, along with two I had in the area over 160 as well. He was a buck I planned on taking if given the chance. And sure enough, he came the horns on my first sequence. After I shot him, I was a little disappointed because I expected him to be much bigger. Out of the neighbor's pictures and some 41 different bucks I had on camera on this farm, not another had split g2's so I don't think it was a genetic thing. It leads me to believe that the sheds did belong to this guy and that he had just declined since last year as this rack only scored around 140. Based on trail cam pics of him, I really only thought this deer was 4 1/2. If that's the case, it seems too early for him to have taken a plunge in antler size. What are your thoughts?

Congrats on a great buck and streak.

Great deer. Congrats

Congratulations to you and your son.

I had him green scored and with a 6x6 frame and 14 irregular points, he grossed 215 7/8 and netted 205 3/8. Hard to believe considering he was only 14 inches inside.

Thank you gentlemen. Was obsessed with him once he showed up on trail camera. Hard to believe it all came together the way it did, and so fast.

Posthunt

I'm new here in the forums, and I'd like to share some trail cam and post hunt photos of a buck I had previously named Hightower, that I was fortunate to harvest on film Halloween morning.