Booner
Well-Known Member
I've had the privilege of following this buck for the past 4 seasons. He's been a roamer on the farm and up until last fall I hadn't been able to put a pattern to him. The first fall, He sported a heck of a frame however his tines didn't agree with the rest of the frame leaving him as wicked 7 pointer. I never laid eyes on him that year.
The following summer, wouldn't you know Ol' Bullet showed back up again. This years he filled out and grew the G3 on his left side. His bullet bases made him recognizable along with his Holstein body he had filled into. I believed him to be at least a 5.5 yrs old based on all the body traits as well as how witty he had been outsmarting me throughout that first season.
The fall of 2011 I believed him to be fully mature and he went on the list. That year, he however again outsmarted me only seeing him in the stand twice and both times he had one thing on his mind
. That year he had been frequenting a bean field late season and I thought for sure he would shed close. However to my surprise I never found them. We had a fairly hard winter that year and I figured that he maybe had been taken by mother nature, however to my surprise yet again, he showed up yet again. However this year his new summer buddy was an absolute monster who I had also had history with, missing that deer the previous fall on Halloween night.
I will admit I thought the fall of 2012 Bullet was overlooked by myself. This deer was a monarch on the farm however with a world class deer to chase I found myself caught up in him, letting ol bullet slip by my arrow. On November 5 I had my first ever encounter with him, he seemed to be getting less and less wise with his old age. Seemed very strange but it seemed as if his time and come and gone and he had accepted the fact. Over the next week I had seem the Bullet several times yet he never presented me a shot and I was hoping he wouldn't with my sites set on one buck. Fast forward to the end of the season, a buddy and I had set a cam up in hopes of confirming that the monster had made it through gun season. I went in the day after season's end and wouldn't you know it, he was still around. This time I made it a point to get my hands on the sheds. I set up some corn and camera and waited until the middle of January to go in and check it out. I knew with his old age and the way his priorities had changed over the years, food was on the menu this year. I honestly didn't figure the guy to make it through the winter. There was suppose to be a bad winter storm moving in middle of the week so I figured I would buzz out and check the camera maybe throw some corn out and see what the deer had been doing. I had been working with my yellow lab all fall in hopes she would be into sheds as much as I was, and to my surprise she was shed crazy. She wasn't so much the hunter I had hoped being gun shy, however her keen instinct for shed antlers was unbelievable. As Jade and I pulled into the drive I could see the deer had flocked to the bait pile, with trails coming from hundreds of yards away, zig zagging across the alfalfa fields from the west and east. I thought at that moment, "there has to be some bone in here" I started walking to my trail cam, figuring the batteries were dead. As I got close, Jade nose to the ground began making the "wap, wap" noise that us lab guys love to here. I knew that nose of hers had picked something up. I figured she was just catching wind of the deer that had been slamming the bait. I proceeded to open the camera and poor out some more corn, when I heard it. Us shed hunters who have ever shed hunted with a dog know the sound all too well, the clinking of antler on teeth. I whip around to see Jade with a big bone hanging out of her mouth. The look on her face was one I'll never forget. I sat in amazement as my yr old pup had just found the one deer antler that I had lost sleep over in hopes of finding that season. Not only was I shocked at the fact Bullet's shed was right in my hands but also the fact at how big it actually was. I put the deer at 130's. However after putting a tape on it, a whopping 66 3/8's putting him mid 140's was a shocker.
Well as the story goes many times with deer, they shed their antlers in random spots and I was unable to match up the other side. Well fast forward to this past weekend. I have had a camera out for the past month, for this one deer. I honestly thought as I had the previous year, that he would die of old age. Over a month went buy and still no Bullet. Sunday however when I got home wouldn't ya know the old grandpa decided to show up. This year, he is sporting this smallest rack to date over the 4 years I've had the privilege to know this deer.
He has single handily taught me more about whitetails than anything or anyone else. It's been an awesome journey chasing this deer, and I honestly don't know if I could bring myself to kill this grandpa. Anyways sorry for the long read, tags go on sale tonight and with these 50 degree lows at night, deer season is entirely to close to taste :drink1:
The following summer, wouldn't you know Ol' Bullet showed back up again. This years he filled out and grew the G3 on his left side. His bullet bases made him recognizable along with his Holstein body he had filled into. I believed him to be at least a 5.5 yrs old based on all the body traits as well as how witty he had been outsmarting me throughout that first season.
The fall of 2011 I believed him to be fully mature and he went on the list. That year, he however again outsmarted me only seeing him in the stand twice and both times he had one thing on his mind
. That year he had been frequenting a bean field late season and I thought for sure he would shed close. However to my surprise I never found them. We had a fairly hard winter that year and I figured that he maybe had been taken by mother nature, however to my surprise yet again, he showed up yet again. However this year his new summer buddy was an absolute monster who I had also had history with, missing that deer the previous fall on Halloween night.
I will admit I thought the fall of 2012 Bullet was overlooked by myself. This deer was a monarch on the farm however with a world class deer to chase I found myself caught up in him, letting ol bullet slip by my arrow. On November 5 I had my first ever encounter with him, he seemed to be getting less and less wise with his old age. Seemed very strange but it seemed as if his time and come and gone and he had accepted the fact. Over the next week I had seem the Bullet several times yet he never presented me a shot and I was hoping he wouldn't with my sites set on one buck. Fast forward to the end of the season, a buddy and I had set a cam up in hopes of confirming that the monster had made it through gun season. I went in the day after season's end and wouldn't you know it, he was still around. This time I made it a point to get my hands on the sheds. I set up some corn and camera and waited until the middle of January to go in and check it out. I knew with his old age and the way his priorities had changed over the years, food was on the menu this year. I honestly didn't figure the guy to make it through the winter. There was suppose to be a bad winter storm moving in middle of the week so I figured I would buzz out and check the camera maybe throw some corn out and see what the deer had been doing. I had been working with my yellow lab all fall in hopes she would be into sheds as much as I was, and to my surprise she was shed crazy. She wasn't so much the hunter I had hoped being gun shy, however her keen instinct for shed antlers was unbelievable. As Jade and I pulled into the drive I could see the deer had flocked to the bait pile, with trails coming from hundreds of yards away, zig zagging across the alfalfa fields from the west and east. I thought at that moment, "there has to be some bone in here" I started walking to my trail cam, figuring the batteries were dead. As I got close, Jade nose to the ground began making the "wap, wap" noise that us lab guys love to here. I knew that nose of hers had picked something up. I figured she was just catching wind of the deer that had been slamming the bait. I proceeded to open the camera and poor out some more corn, when I heard it. Us shed hunters who have ever shed hunted with a dog know the sound all too well, the clinking of antler on teeth. I whip around to see Jade with a big bone hanging out of her mouth. The look on her face was one I'll never forget. I sat in amazement as my yr old pup had just found the one deer antler that I had lost sleep over in hopes of finding that season. Not only was I shocked at the fact Bullet's shed was right in my hands but also the fact at how big it actually was. I put the deer at 130's. However after putting a tape on it, a whopping 66 3/8's putting him mid 140's was a shocker.
Well as the story goes many times with deer, they shed their antlers in random spots and I was unable to match up the other side. Well fast forward to this past weekend. I have had a camera out for the past month, for this one deer. I honestly thought as I had the previous year, that he would die of old age. Over a month went buy and still no Bullet. Sunday however when I got home wouldn't ya know the old grandpa decided to show up. This year, he is sporting this smallest rack to date over the 4 years I've had the privilege to know this deer.
He has single handily taught me more about whitetails than anything or anyone else. It's been an awesome journey chasing this deer, and I honestly don't know if I could bring myself to kill this grandpa. Anyways sorry for the long read, tags go on sale tonight and with these 50 degree lows at night, deer season is entirely to close to taste :drink1:
