c_lou Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 My weekend started on Friday. I got to my stand around 3:30 and discovered another hunter sitting about 30 yards behind me on the property line. I decided to sit anyways, he didn't make any noise and I didn't really want to walk through the woods to another stand. Around 5 I see a small basket 8 walking towards me on my left, about the same time I notice a nicer buck walking in from my right. The small 8 walks off and over the knob to the North of me. The second deer I see making his way down the draw in front of me. When I get a better look at him, it was a small spike. I thought that was strange, he looked like he had a bigger rack when I first saw him. The spike makes his way past me at 25 yards and follows the same path the small 8 went. A few minutes after he walks by, the buck I originally seen coming down the draw makes his way past me on the same trail as the spike. He is a small 9 pointer with a cow tag in his ear. I have never seen anything like that before. He was a pretty small bodied 9, so I let him continue on. The time now is about 5:35 and I hear another deer walking towards me on my left. When I get a glimpse of him, I can see he is a pretty nice 10 with a bright white rack. He makes his way 25 yards to my left and starts working over a tree. The time now is 5:50, and as he is rubbing the small tree, I can hear another deer coming off the knob in front of me. I can see him silhouetted against the sky as he makes his way right past another stand, and down the knob. I check the 10 and he has also noticed this deer making his way towards us, so he abandons his task of destroying the small sapling and makes his way to meet this new intruder, directly in front of me at 35 yards. Now that my heart is pounding pretty good, the two deer meet, 35 yards directly out in front of me. The 10 looks like a nice buck, but that's when the new buck turns his head and looks away from me. My first thought was "What 10?". This deer was massive. The time is now 6:10 and I make my move. I draw back, making sure to get a good anchor point. I don't know how I managed to stay focused. I put my 20 yard pin on the top of the deer's back and squeeze my release. I hear nothing, no whack, no thwack, to crack. I do hear the 10 take off to my left, the big deer just stands there and then casually walks off to the east. Well to make this long story longer, I shot underneath the buck. When I stepped it off after I got down, it turned out to be about 42 yards. I was sick that I missed, but excited that I missed cleanly and he didn't seem to know what happened. Now on to Saturday... I mentioned to my father in law that there was that hunter directly behind me. I wasn't sure if he was on his side of the property line or on our side. So he, my brother in law and his 2 kids proceed to head out and check it out. They made quite a bit of racket out there but determined he is just on his side of the line, sort of a jerk move, but legal I guess. So between all the hub-bub in the woods and the wind blowing, I almost didn't go out. The memory of that monster got me off the couch though. I made the decision to head to the stand he walked past the previous night. What are the odds he walks past the same stand two nights in a row? I figured with the deer running, pretty good. We will skip forward to 3:45, that's when I notice 2 deer running off the knob from the south or to my left. The move quickly down a trail upwind and 8 yards behind me. They hang around for 10 minutes of so and then hustle there way to the Northeast, which is behind me to my right. The next hour and a half was pretty slow. About 5 I did a short grunt sequence and stand up, grab my bow off the bow hanger and get ready for the best time of the night. I am standing for about 10 minutes, when I look North, my right, and notice a rack walking directly up the knob. It was the 10 from Friday night. Now that he was coming right at me, I could see he was is really a 9 pointer. He had a broken brow tine. He has his ears pinned back so I couldn't really tell how wide he was. He was wandering around smelling where those does stood for a few minutes. He makes his way slightly behind me to the right, that's when he looked up at me. You know that feeling it sort of says "OH CRAP!", that's what I felt. However, he put his head down and kept nosing the ground. I thought he was going to walk behind me, so I move ever so slowly to get ready, in case I need to shoot. He turns back and starts making his way directly to my right. Up came his head again and looked directly at me. This time his ears were straight out, listening for my heart, which was pounding pretty good. I can now see his rack is about an inch outside his ears. I can hear my internal voice shouting "SHOOTER...SHOOTER". I made the decision to shoot. He is moving into a downwind position which made me even more nervous. With his head behind a tree, I draw back, and get my 20 yard pin on him. I held a bit low. He made his way between 2 trees and I heard a voice say "MAAAAAA". Turns out that was my voice and the deer is now stopped. Anchor set, pin set to the boiler room, I feel my finger squeeze my release. THWACK! is all I heard and I see him take off heading directly west, away from me. I notice my arrow fall out the opposite side of the deer. As I am watching him run through the woods at break neck speed, I do that all to familiar prayer that we all know. "GO DOWN...GO DOWN... GO DOWN." Well he must have heard me because he got to about 120 yards and stopped dead in his tracks, did that little wobble and fell over. All of this happened and it was only 5:20. I got myself calmed down and did some thanking to the man upstairs for allowing the sequence of events to happen. I then made some phone calls for help. I measured him right at 17" wide. He wasn't the biggest buck in the woods, nor the biggest that I have shot, but he was good enough for me. I am pretty sure he is the deer from the previous night, not the bigger one that I missed but the one that was rubbing that tree. I just hope that bigger one makes it. Forgive the pictures, I had fogotten my cleaner in the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kat Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 congrats and great story. Thats a dandy of a 9 pointer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gzilla45 Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 Congrats on a great buck and a great story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PotashRLS Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 That a boy. Nice buck. Keeping at it when you could have stayed home that afternoon killed that buck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUDRUNNER Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 Great buck! Congrats! Looks like a hefty body too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyohunter Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 He would of been good enough for me too...... and i too hope the bigger one makes it. congrats on a dandy buck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 Way to go!! Good buck & great story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointing_dogs_rule Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Congrats on a very nice deer. good luck to all the dog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisSeb53 Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 awesome deer! Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Congrats again teammate! WTG!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xzavyer Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Great job buddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikewink Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Great buck! Glad to see our team picking it up this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Real nice buck. Congratulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHISKEYSWAMP Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 good story and buck... congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 good stuff thanks for sharing and congrats on a nice buck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrich Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Thanks for the great play-by-play story, it took me right there. And congrats on a great buck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkneck Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Great looking buck! I know I'd be thrilled to take him with a bow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddyboman Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 attta boy! Congrats!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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