meyeri
PMA Member
I got a little head start on no shave November this year, (2 1/2 months), but I told my wife I would shave my beard once I got a buck, so on the 7th of November I fulfilled the deal.
I put in a lot of work to get this buck and it started when I moved to the DSM area in January. I started scouting public ground North, South and West of DSM until my cams showed which places I should concentrate on. I narrowed it down to two chunks and mostly abandoned the other sites. I only had two trail cam pics of this buck in Late October, but I figured there was a pretty good chance his home range overlapped this particular section. This particular place had the highest density of shooter bucks so I figured I’d play the odds and settle for the first one to give me a shot. This guy made the top of my list though and he was the buck I really wanted. Fast Forward to November 7th which was my first day of vacation. I initially wanted to hunt another spot that was tore up with huge rubs and sign but the wind was wrong so I went back to this spot. After 2 hours on stand and no deer I thought maybe I should have gambled with the wind until I saw movement coming down the hill. I grabbed my bow and clipped on my release as a deer made its way to the creek by me and began to drink. I couldn’t see his rack until he lifted his head and I instantly knew he was a shooter. I ignored his rack and concentrated on making the shot as he made his way up the hill towards me. He was now at 30 yds and I drew on him but there was so much brush I couldn’t get a clean shot, so I let the bow back down and waited. He continued up the hill eating acorns on a course that would take him by at 15 yds. I had a three foot window to shoot through so when his head went behind a tree I drew and waited for him to hit the lane. He was going uphill at the time so I think his pace was a little quicker than I expected. I didn’t want to scare him by grunting him to stop, so I squeezed the release when the pin was behind his shoulder. I watched as the arrow passed through at mid deer and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. I think my shot was a tad back which was compounded by his quick pace uphill.
The buck ran 40 yds and stood still for over 2 minutes. I could see the hole and how little blood was pouring out and I felt even sicker. He slowly walked on until he disappeared behind the ridge. I waited 45 minutes and went down to get my arrow, the blood looked like liver blood but there was little at the shot sight so I climbed back up in the stand. I waited another hour then walked a mile and a half out of the way back to my truck so I wouldn’t spook him. After texting multiple buddies, I came to the conclusion that best case scenario it was a liver shot so I backed out. I shot him at 8:40am on the 7th so I waited till morning on the 8th to take up the trail. It was a sleepless night and the blood wasn’t good at all. It took me two hours to go about 250- 300yds and he hadn’t bedded down yet. My wife and her parents showed up to help now and after another 50 yds the blood was lost in tall grass. We started walking the bedding area and after about 15 minutes I saw deer legs sticking up on a log about 30 yds away and knew it was him. He was a lot bigger than I thought and all I could do was thank God for blessing me with this great animal. He must have died during the night as he wasn’t even stiff yet. Cold temps can slow down rigor mortis, but had I started trailing sooner I probably would have never found this deer. He had 13 scoreable points and taped out at 182 7/8. His frame is enormous with a 23 inch inside spread and 25 inch main beams. I’m still on cloud nine!
I put in a lot of work to get this buck and it started when I moved to the DSM area in January. I started scouting public ground North, South and West of DSM until my cams showed which places I should concentrate on. I narrowed it down to two chunks and mostly abandoned the other sites. I only had two trail cam pics of this buck in Late October, but I figured there was a pretty good chance his home range overlapped this particular section. This particular place had the highest density of shooter bucks so I figured I’d play the odds and settle for the first one to give me a shot. This guy made the top of my list though and he was the buck I really wanted. Fast Forward to November 7th which was my first day of vacation. I initially wanted to hunt another spot that was tore up with huge rubs and sign but the wind was wrong so I went back to this spot. After 2 hours on stand and no deer I thought maybe I should have gambled with the wind until I saw movement coming down the hill. I grabbed my bow and clipped on my release as a deer made its way to the creek by me and began to drink. I couldn’t see his rack until he lifted his head and I instantly knew he was a shooter. I ignored his rack and concentrated on making the shot as he made his way up the hill towards me. He was now at 30 yds and I drew on him but there was so much brush I couldn’t get a clean shot, so I let the bow back down and waited. He continued up the hill eating acorns on a course that would take him by at 15 yds. I had a three foot window to shoot through so when his head went behind a tree I drew and waited for him to hit the lane. He was going uphill at the time so I think his pace was a little quicker than I expected. I didn’t want to scare him by grunting him to stop, so I squeezed the release when the pin was behind his shoulder. I watched as the arrow passed through at mid deer and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. I think my shot was a tad back which was compounded by his quick pace uphill.
The buck ran 40 yds and stood still for over 2 minutes. I could see the hole and how little blood was pouring out and I felt even sicker. He slowly walked on until he disappeared behind the ridge. I waited 45 minutes and went down to get my arrow, the blood looked like liver blood but there was little at the shot sight so I climbed back up in the stand. I waited another hour then walked a mile and a half out of the way back to my truck so I wouldn’t spook him. After texting multiple buddies, I came to the conclusion that best case scenario it was a liver shot so I backed out. I shot him at 8:40am on the 7th so I waited till morning on the 8th to take up the trail. It was a sleepless night and the blood wasn’t good at all. It took me two hours to go about 250- 300yds and he hadn’t bedded down yet. My wife and her parents showed up to help now and after another 50 yds the blood was lost in tall grass. We started walking the bedding area and after about 15 minutes I saw deer legs sticking up on a log about 30 yds away and knew it was him. He was a lot bigger than I thought and all I could do was thank God for blessing me with this great animal. He must have died during the night as he wasn’t even stiff yet. Cold temps can slow down rigor mortis, but had I started trailing sooner I probably would have never found this deer. He had 13 scoreable points and taped out at 182 7/8. His frame is enormous with a 23 inch inside spread and 25 inch main beams. I’m still on cloud nine!
