jbrown
12-22-2008, 01:45 PM
Saturday morning capped off what has been one heck of a deer season for me. With all the craziness between getting my new job and moving, I havent been able to deer hunt half as much as I usually do each year. Fortunately, moving to Seville put me only about an hour away from my stepdad and mom's place in Dellroy, so I was able to make a few trips down there. I took a doe with my bow, two does and two button bucks on opening day of gun season, and now saturday i got this big boy.
It was the only deer my brother and I saw that morning... which really suprised me because I thought it was a perfect morning for deer hunting. Cool and crisp, slight breeze. I was sitting in the same stand that I shot three other deer out of this year. My brother was sitting just across the field from me about 100 yds away. All was quiet until about 8:45... then I heard a twig snap. I whip my head around, and I see him trotting across the field about 90 yds behind me. I immediately grabbed the gun and swung around the other side of the tree. Once he came into an opening in the limbs I made the classic BAAAAHHH sound. He stopped dead in his tracksabout 75 yds out. Not a half second after he stopped I had the crosshairs behind his shoulder and let him have it. The buck's front legs came flying off the ground and he took off like a rocket toward the thicket to the west. Just before he got to the thicket, he did a nose-dive into the ground and piled up. I was so excited... frantic fist pumps were flying and I about fell out of the tree. After the longest half hour of my deer hunting career, I climbed down to go find him. He was laying only about 60 yds from where I shot him. I couldn't believe it. The biggest buck I've ever shot laid at my feet.
The thing that made this most enjoyable was that I've been passing up smaller 1.5 and 2.5 yr old bucks for the last 5 years... and I haven't shot a buck in those 5 years. So to finally get a nice mature deer makes it feel like it all paid off. Definite gratification. I would have much rather taken him with a bow, but with all the things I had going on this year I couldn't be any happier with the way my season ended up.
The other funny part is that I wasn't even using my gun. I was using my brother's 20 gauge winchester youth model, with a smooth barrel and scope. The biggest hope for the weekend was for my brother to get his first deer. He told me the night before that he wasn't very confident in the 20 gauge because it wasn't grouping slugs very well. So I told him to take my gun, 870 with Hastings slug barrel and scope... deadly out to 150 yds, and I would use the 20 gauge. Let me tell ya, when I first saw the buck, I definitely got nervous about where it was gonna shoot. Thank God that it put that little slug right in the boiler room.
I'm gonna put a tape to him tonight to see what he'll score. I'm guessing somewhere between 130" and 140".
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081026.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081026a.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081728.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081729b.jpg
It was the only deer my brother and I saw that morning... which really suprised me because I thought it was a perfect morning for deer hunting. Cool and crisp, slight breeze. I was sitting in the same stand that I shot three other deer out of this year. My brother was sitting just across the field from me about 100 yds away. All was quiet until about 8:45... then I heard a twig snap. I whip my head around, and I see him trotting across the field about 90 yds behind me. I immediately grabbed the gun and swung around the other side of the tree. Once he came into an opening in the limbs I made the classic BAAAAHHH sound. He stopped dead in his tracksabout 75 yds out. Not a half second after he stopped I had the crosshairs behind his shoulder and let him have it. The buck's front legs came flying off the ground and he took off like a rocket toward the thicket to the west. Just before he got to the thicket, he did a nose-dive into the ground and piled up. I was so excited... frantic fist pumps were flying and I about fell out of the tree. After the longest half hour of my deer hunting career, I climbed down to go find him. He was laying only about 60 yds from where I shot him. I couldn't believe it. The biggest buck I've ever shot laid at my feet.
The thing that made this most enjoyable was that I've been passing up smaller 1.5 and 2.5 yr old bucks for the last 5 years... and I haven't shot a buck in those 5 years. So to finally get a nice mature deer makes it feel like it all paid off. Definite gratification. I would have much rather taken him with a bow, but with all the things I had going on this year I couldn't be any happier with the way my season ended up.
The other funny part is that I wasn't even using my gun. I was using my brother's 20 gauge winchester youth model, with a smooth barrel and scope. The biggest hope for the weekend was for my brother to get his first deer. He told me the night before that he wasn't very confident in the 20 gauge because it wasn't grouping slugs very well. So I told him to take my gun, 870 with Hastings slug barrel and scope... deadly out to 150 yds, and I would use the 20 gauge. Let me tell ya, when I first saw the buck, I definitely got nervous about where it was gonna shoot. Thank God that it put that little slug right in the boiler room.
I'm gonna put a tape to him tonight to see what he'll score. I'm guessing somewhere between 130" and 140".
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081026.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081026a.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081728.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/farcass31/2008%20Big%20Eight/1220081729b.jpg