My son is a junior in high school this year and with football, hasn't had as much time as he would have liked to get out in the woods. He has been out every day this week, and has seen very little. Thursday night, he decided to try a neighbors place where we have permission to hunt. He sat in the woods about 100 yards off a field hoping to catch a buck moving to the field. They must have taken a different path, because my wife drove by the field he was close to around 4:30 and saw this buck and 9 other deer out in the field.
So Friday, my son and I make a plan to walk in from the road and sit on a little finger of woods that sticks out in the field. He was on one side and I was on the other about 50 yards apart. About 4:30, I see a small buck come into my side of the field about 200 yards away, and shortly after hear a shot. I yell, "did you get one" and heard a "yes" in response. "Big one" I said. "I think so", came the reply. I get up and walk over to him and see the buck trying to stand up and head towards the woods. He dropped at the first shot. My boy was getting ready to reload the muzzleloader when the buck was almost back up to his feet, so I handed him my 45-70 and he quickly put it down for good. He said he never realized how big he was until he got up to him. It had come out of the woods with 7 or 8 other deer and was standing about 50 yards out when he shot. We were shocked when we got up to him. He was pretty pumped. He is a 6x6 with a small scorable point near the base of his right beam.
We tagged him, got a few pictures, and skinned him out. I quickly gross scored him between 178-180. with around 10" of deductions, so he will be right on the cusp of the book.
He seemed to be an older deer as all of his upper teeth were worn down to the gums.
