fly Posted January 28, 2017 Report Share Posted January 28, 2017 This has got to be the most amazing conclusion to a hunting story I'll ever write. As parents introducing our kids to the fine sport of hunting we try to make sure we do it right. Our focus is on making the experience fun, safe, comfortable and educational. We focus on the rules, safety, and ethical shot placement. This was true back in 2015 when I was introducing my son to crossbow hunting. This is a picture of him that I took at the beginning of the hunt. The start of the hunt was rather warm but a cool front was moving in that evening which we had hoped would get the deer moving. About an hour after I took the picture above a beautiful buck came walking out of the timber along the field edge. Rather than write what happened I'll re-post what I wrote back in October of the 2015 deer contest thread... "My son was hunting with the crossbow Friday night and a huge buck came walking near our ground blind set up. I stopped him broadside at 30 yards and my son sent the bolt through him. We found the bolt covered in blood but the blood trail was terrible so we did not pursue. The next day around noon we tried to get on blood but no luck. We grid searched for a couple hours and searched again on Sunday morning. The deer was not within 300 yards of the where we saw him last in any direction and longer in the more likely directions. We have pics of a 140 inch 9-point and we think it was him. It would have been his first crossbow kill at 13 years old - bummer." Here's a reply from OKState: "bummer on the one that got away, but hopefully he is healing and you will run across him again." and one from hoytshooter09: " to bad about the buck you guys couldn't find." We kept the trail cameras running the entire season and never got another picture of the 140 inch - 9 pointer and never saw it while hunting. This confirmed to us that the picture we had of the 9-pointer a couple days before my son and I were hunting was indeed the same buck my son shot. Later in the 2015 season we searched again for the remains of the deer but wasn't able to find it. My son was rather distraught about it feeling like he had made a poor shot. Figuring this was the end of the story I tried my best to ease the pain, but as we all know that unfortunately is a part of hunting. Now we fast forward to 2017. I'm out scouting a corner of the property boundary about 400 yards from where my son shot the buck back in 2015. I'm walking the barb wire fence line looking for deer trails and hair as well as a suitable tree for a stand when I notice something white sticking out of the ground. I walk over to it and pull up a deer skull with antlers. It has a few nibbles on the back but overall it is in great shape. I immediately thought to myself... this looks a lot like the deer my son shot in 2015. However, it's been a year and a half and I can't remember exactly what the buck looked like (other than it was a 9 pointer). We look through old SD cards to try and find the pictures and unfortunately we hadn't saved them and the camera took additional pictures overwriting them. I was bummed because I was fairly certain it was my sons deer but needed that picture to confirm. Then I remembered that we had used the iPhone to take a picture of the computer screen of the trail cam picture and texted it to a friend. While I had bought a new phone my friend still had the picture and sent it to me. It's not the best quality but it was enough to make the confirmation. Here is the picture. After finding it and confirming it I told my son and then showed him the skull and rack. While a closer look tells me this is more like a 130 inch deer instead of a 140 it is truly a remarkable buck for a 13 year old to take with a crossbow. He wants to acquire a cape and have a shoulder mount done for his wall and that's what we will do once we get the salvage tag. While he rarely shows a lot of emotion (at least around me) I looked at his phone today and noticed he took a picture of the skull and has that set as his wallpaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted January 28, 2017 Report Share Posted January 28, 2017 Sounds kind of familiar Frank, with the trail cam pics and the deer disappearing. As you may recall Catrina's 2015 encounter with a 9 point with the muzzleloader that we never found any blood on. Shame you all did not find it initially after the shot. How far did the skull end up from where you stopped looking? Congratulations to your son, that is a great deer especially to be taken by a kid and with a crossbow no less. Amazing that after that long that he was still that much intact, the rodents would have had it gnawed to nothing here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted January 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2017 Yea, William it does sound a lot like Catrina's 9-point. I can't explain why it was still in such good shape after a year and a half. All I can say is that we were very lucky. I didn't look real hard but didn't see any other remains in the immediate area. I just used a distance calculator and the skull of the buck was 265 yards from where my son shot it. After the shot I watched it run the field edge a good 50 yards in a different direction. If the deer ran a straight line from where we last saw it to where it died he would have ran 325 yards after the shot. I had walked the fence line back in 2015 but did not see it back then. Of course looking in Mid-October is a lot different then mid-January. The skill was about 30 yards from the fence line. If he died where I found the skull I would have walked within 30 yards of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted January 29, 2017 Report Share Posted January 29, 2017 Frank, we have had a couple cases like that over the years. So close to finding it, but too late to salvage it. Had my dog find a couple for me, just a mutt with a GREAT nose! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted January 29, 2017 Report Share Posted January 29, 2017 13 hours ago, fly said: Yea, William it does sound a lot like Catrina's 9-point. I can't explain why it was still in such good shape after a year and a half. All I can say is that we were very lucky. I didn't look real hard but didn't see any other remains in the immediate area. I just used a distance calculator and the skull of the buck was 265 yards from where my son shot it. After the shot I watched it run the field edge a good 50 yards in a different direction. If the deer ran a straight line from where we last saw it to where it died he would have ran 325 yards after the shot. I had walked the fence line back in 2015 but did not see it back then. Of course looking in Mid-October is a lot different then mid-January. The skill was about 30 yards from the fence line. If he died where I found the skull I would have walked within 30 yards of him. During the rut 30 yards could about be in smelling distance if the wind was right. Another animal could have dragged it there from farther away. You never really know. Vegetation grown up on that fence row may have kept rats from finding it. I have watched a squirrel run with a deer jawbone in its mouth here. I looked around a little where the skull was from Catrina's and no other bones anywhere either. No doubt yotes will drag off pieces. I got to get motivated to get after the yotes here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUDRUNNER Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 Man, that is a real nice deer! Critters and yotes can drag parts all over the place. If there were not any other bones laying in the area I would guess that I died someplace else. I found a doe carcass a few years ago in a field, and found rib & leg bones scattered to about 60 or 70 yards. Can't wait to see the mount! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OKstate Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) That's Awesome!! Congrats on finding the head and I am sure even if it is a little delayed, your son will still be grateful for the experience! Edited January 30, 2017 by OKstate 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted January 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2017 Tim, I thought that as well as I have recovered deer before that had the spine and ribs attached as well as a leg (it was a recent death though). However, a friend said the skull and antlers are generally left where the deer died. The rest is dragged off by coyotes or whatever. No meat in the skull so it's not often moved. He said he found a skull and antlers once and no other bones in the area. I honestly have no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Very cool that you found him mostly intact after that much time passed. You get a big ATTABOY for that find Frank! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevebeilgard Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 i agree, that find is an attaboy for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archerjg Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 Congratulations on finding it. That is a dandy buck. Archerjg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted February 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2017 Thanks everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted February 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Measured the antlers a couple days ago and the gross score was right at 125 inches. Gotta say that's a pretty good deer for a 13 year old kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUDRUNNER Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 That is an awesome deer for a 13 year old....heck, that would be a great deer for this 40 year old lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted February 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 On 2/8/2017 at 8:23 AM, MUDRUNNER said: That is an awesome deer for a 13 year old....heck, that would be a great deer for this 40 year old lol. Ha! Yea, Tim - while my buck this past season scored a little higher my sons deer has more mass and a more impressive frame. Given the choice in the field I would have shot his over mine all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 12, 2017 Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 Guess I may be somewhat of a pack rat when it comes to pics. I have kept waaay too many, transfer from sd cards and save resized copies on externals. Have several tens of thousands of pics from tc's saved on an ext hard drive and thumb drive. I really need to go through and do some thinning and deleting. Kind of cool to be able to go back and look at all the tc pics you have for one specific buck you end up killing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted February 12, 2017 Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 I dont keep many pics of the bucks, unless it's a "Target" buck..I look at my sd cards and emmidiately delete all pics before pulling the card Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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