Tominator Connects (w/ pic)

Tominator

By Tominator
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Tominator Monster Buck

Tominator

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deer05_003.jpg

I headed out to a nearby piece of land last night and planned to get set up on 2 well worn paths in a particular creek bottom I've hunted a few times in the past. This particular creek bottom is notorious for shifting winds, as is just about every creek bottom I've ever hunted. As I walked in, I continually pulled my "puffer" checking the wind. I had wind and breezes from all directions to be honest, so I decided to get up above the bottom a little on the west side of the creek. I hung 3 wicks doused in Tinks69 and proceeded to climb my tree. I got 20 feet or so up in a walnut tree, settled in, and tested the wind. The wind situation was a little better as I got above most of the swirling.

Half hour into the hunt I heard some leaves rustling and looked to my left. Seven turkeys were ambling from the south headed into the picked corn field to the west. I later ranged a log they walked right by with my brand new BUSHNELL rangefinder. 53 yards. (sorry, just had to get the Nikon dig in there wink.gif).

Half hour later I stood up to stretch. Checked my watch and it was 5:15. I looked behind me to the east because I've been seeing deer consistently in this spot. Sure enough, I caught movement 80 yards away. As I watched to see what it was, I made out the figure of a deer, a buck, then something moved in front of that deer, 50 yards closer, it was another deer. This deer was a smaller buck that was headed for the creek. As he stood in the creek, I could see that he was a little 8 point, not a shooter, but he continued coming my way with the other deer in tow. The deer in back was another 8 pointer and he was a little better, not quite a shooter. I'm pretty sure it was the deer I saw last week near the same spot. As I was studying the bigger buck, the little buck got downwind of me, put his nose up and sensed something was wrong. I don't know if he smelled me or the Tinks, or a combination, but he didn't like it, so he turned and walked to the north. The other deer seeing this turned and walked away too. I decided that I wanted a better look at the bigger deer, so I grabbed my rattle bag and tickled it a little. The bigger buck stopped, looked over his shoulder, flicked his tail a few times, and walked off. I wasn't too disappointed because I don't think he was quite a shooter for me.

Ten minutes later off to the west, I saw another buck cruising the fenceline in front of me to the west. I could see his rack silhouetted and figured he was at least a 10 point, with some short tines. I grabbed my bow anyway, and as he got in front of me, I gave a soft grunt. Hearing this, he turned to his right and came down the hill. Now at 30 yards, I could see that this buck was another 8 point, with decent width and fairly long tines. I decided to shoot him if given the chance. I figured he'd be a little shy of my Pope & Young goal, but having not shot a deer in over 2 years with no bucks in 4 years, he was too big to pass up.

As the deer got closer, I got more confident about shooting him. He was a nice deer. He came down to one of my Tinks wicks that was set in front of me at about 15 yards. His body was turned the wrong way for me to shoot as it was obscured by a few little trees. After smelling the wick a few times he played peek-a-boo with me threatening to come into a clear shooting lane. Eventually he decided to turn, and head to the north which I did not like because there was all kinds of little branches I knew I was going to have to dodge. As he went behind a huge maple tree, I went to full draw. While I was at draw, I quickly looked over all the shot possibilities I had. To be honest, they were limited, but luckily he stopped where there wasn't too much interference. I had 2 branches that pointed towards each other, both branches had forks in them thus giving me 3 tiny windows to shoot through. The top window was too high, the bottom window was too low, the middle window was marginally high, but I was pretty sure I could put one in the vitals so I settled the 20 yard pin as low as I dared, estimated him to be at 15 yards and released. The Muzzy cracked home spining the deer. The spine shot knocked him clear off his back legs. As he lay there trying to crawl away on his front legs, I knocked another arrow, and put the finisher right in the lungs ending it in about 10 seconds.

I've been telling ohiobucks "I just want to kill Tom...." He would laugh, but I tell ya', after missing 3 deer last year, dealing with depression over the past 2 years with cancer worries, not having any shot opportunities on any doe of any kind this year so far, passing on countless little bucks, I really just wanted to release an arrow on just about anything. I think a lot of you can understand, I just wanted the thrill of the harvest. To be honest, I lowered my standards a bit, but feeling the way I did, this was a tough deer to pass up. Tom's been at me already about what's going to walk in front of me once the rut really kicks in, we both had a good laugh about that, but I'm happy, actually, overjoyed with this deer, and it's a long time coming.

The particulars:

17 1/2" inside

21" main beams

G-1's 3"

G-2's 8" and 9 (left, right)

G-3's 6"

Circumferences are around 3.5 and taper as you go out.

Thanks for reading my story.

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Jeramie Monster Buck

Jeramie

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Re: Tominator Connects (w/ pics)

[ QUOTE ]

You call that lowering your standards?!?!?! Thats a brute right there!! Well done Christopher. grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly what I was thinking! It looks like a horse with a huge rack! Dang Chris, if thats lowering your standards ill be up next year to hunt with you bud!

WoW!

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Tominator Monster Buck

Tominator

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Re: Tominator Connects (w/ pics)

[ QUOTE ]

Great story and great buck. Try to look a little happier next time grin.gif!

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, LOL, I apologized to Tom for that look. My camera throws off that strobe effect before it snaps the picture, I guess because it was so dark, so all of the pictures I really had to concentrate on keeping my eyes open, and I didn't want to have the cheesy smile looking thing, so I went with the "deer in the headlights" look. grin.gif

Like I said, I'm very happy with this deer. I've been known to pop off here in the forum saying "I only shoot Popers, Not a shooter here, yadda yadda yadda." I don't think this guy will make Pope, but I'm well pleased. Hard to beat the 223 dress weight though. Hands down, the fattest deer I've ever shot. I had to go look at the scale after I finished my permanent tag info. I didn't believe it until I saw it for myself. And actually the scale was 2 or 3 feet above my head, it was hard to read the scale at that angle, I think he was more like 225, or a bit over. But what's 3 pounds when the deer's hanging at over 220? grin.gif

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Guest SRA

Guest SRA

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Re: Tominator Connects (w/ pics)

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Congrats Chris. You da man! cool.gif

You should really have a better smile though. grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

deer05_004.jpg

This better Fred?

grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Killer boots............DUDE!!!!! blush.giflaugh.gif

nice buck........again.....

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