pete
Member
This buck made a brief appearance in front of my trail camera in October 2006. You can imagine my excitement because I was somewhat new to trail camming and this was my largest buck to that date on camera.
A few weeks went by and this buck got very photogenic, unfortunately, he also got very broken up!
Because the buck had gotten very broken up I had decided if I was given the chance at a shot at him I would pass because he may have great potential for the up coming year. Late in November the last day, of my 2 week rut vacation, he offered me a 20 yard shot and I passed on it. I shed hunted hard in the spring, and ended up finding his right side. (The Picture doesn't do it Justice)
In 2007 I watched my cameras closely hoping the buck was still in the area, in August, I fianlly captured some photos of him.
Although he didn't grow the third main beam or have the palmation on the right side, I had decided if he didn't get broken up and provided me a shot I would definately take him, because he seemed to be declining and judging from his body size in 07 I was thinking he may be an older buck than what I had thought.
Late in October of 2007 I had traveled the hour from my home to hunt this buck, I hunted in the am and stopped at my parents to visit after the morning hunt. Unfortunately my Dad was still harvesting his corn and asked me to help him the rest of the day. I agreed and remembered the 2 weeks of Vacation I had taken in November to hunt. I helped him all day, and around 4:00 that afternoon while he was unloading the combine he asked "Aren't you going hunting?" I rushed to unload the full tractor and wagon and get it back to my dad so he had an empty. It was approaching 5pm when I fianlly arrived, and was to late to try and maneuver into one of my stands, I decided to sit on an old wooded fenceline that ran perpendicular out of the piece in which I beleved this buck to be living at. I knocked an arrow arrow and patiently waited, below me was about 10 acres in which we had planted 5000 trees 12 years before, I looked down and what appeared to be around 40 yards away was a huge scrape. I had forgotten my rangefinder so I couldn't be sure. I had only been sitting for 10 minutes when two does came blasing out of the timber and straight down the fenceline I was sitting on. I pulled up my binoculars to see what chased them out. Out of the woods came my buck. He grunted twice and started down the fenceline towards the does, I slowly moved up to my knees and prepared for a shot. Suddenly the buck veered off the fencline and ran down to the scrape 40 yards away, I drew my bow and waited what seemed like an eternity for him to turn broadside, he finally did and I let the arrow fly and watched it go low right under neath him, by the time I had another knocked he was long gone. I waited a few minutes and then stepped off the distance 47 yards, woops! I misjudged it! I never got another chance at him in 2007, I did see him late in January of this year so I knew he had also made it through all of the shotgun and late muzzleloader seasons.
I put my cameras up in June and have patiently been waiting for him to make an appearance all summer. Finally he did.
Somewaht disappointing he has gotten smaller again this year.
A few weeks went by and this buck got very photogenic, unfortunately, he also got very broken up!
Because the buck had gotten very broken up I had decided if I was given the chance at a shot at him I would pass because he may have great potential for the up coming year. Late in November the last day, of my 2 week rut vacation, he offered me a 20 yard shot and I passed on it. I shed hunted hard in the spring, and ended up finding his right side. (The Picture doesn't do it Justice)
In 2007 I watched my cameras closely hoping the buck was still in the area, in August, I fianlly captured some photos of him.
Although he didn't grow the third main beam or have the palmation on the right side, I had decided if he didn't get broken up and provided me a shot I would definately take him, because he seemed to be declining and judging from his body size in 07 I was thinking he may be an older buck than what I had thought.
Late in October of 2007 I had traveled the hour from my home to hunt this buck, I hunted in the am and stopped at my parents to visit after the morning hunt. Unfortunately my Dad was still harvesting his corn and asked me to help him the rest of the day. I agreed and remembered the 2 weeks of Vacation I had taken in November to hunt. I helped him all day, and around 4:00 that afternoon while he was unloading the combine he asked "Aren't you going hunting?" I rushed to unload the full tractor and wagon and get it back to my dad so he had an empty. It was approaching 5pm when I fianlly arrived, and was to late to try and maneuver into one of my stands, I decided to sit on an old wooded fenceline that ran perpendicular out of the piece in which I beleved this buck to be living at. I knocked an arrow arrow and patiently waited, below me was about 10 acres in which we had planted 5000 trees 12 years before, I looked down and what appeared to be around 40 yards away was a huge scrape. I had forgotten my rangefinder so I couldn't be sure. I had only been sitting for 10 minutes when two does came blasing out of the timber and straight down the fenceline I was sitting on. I pulled up my binoculars to see what chased them out. Out of the woods came my buck. He grunted twice and started down the fenceline towards the does, I slowly moved up to my knees and prepared for a shot. Suddenly the buck veered off the fencline and ran down to the scrape 40 yards away, I drew my bow and waited what seemed like an eternity for him to turn broadside, he finally did and I let the arrow fly and watched it go low right under neath him, by the time I had another knocked he was long gone. I waited a few minutes and then stepped off the distance 47 yards, woops! I misjudged it! I never got another chance at him in 2007, I did see him late in January of this year so I knew he had also made it through all of the shotgun and late muzzleloader seasons.
I put my cameras up in June and have patiently been waiting for him to make an appearance all summer. Finally he did.
Somewaht disappointing he has gotten smaller again this year.
