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The 180 that wasn’t

CurtisWalker

Well-Known Member
A few guys will get a kick out of the thread name as I know I had a good laugh this morning walking up on the deer.

This year has been rough year, switching shifts at work, figuring out sleep schedules and when to hunt and what to hunt has been the dilemmas. I decided I didn’t want to deer hunt until November keeping my stands fresh at home and I’m glad I did not because the stands stayed fresh but because there hasn’t been anything on cams even up til today. I would have been burnt out and given up by now. Skip forward to last weekend I decide I’m going to head down to Adams county and hunt my grandparents farm. I figured if all else fails I'll get a shot at a coyote. My buddy tagged along and man were we in for a surprise. First sit we didn’t see a single deer. But we took a drive around the section and it didn’t disappoint we ran into a monster just south of where we’re hunting of course he was hunkered down with a doe but it gave us hope. Saturday night we saw 20 deer mostly does and small bucks, with one potential shooter around 150”. Sunday same ole slow morning only seeing a doe. Sunday night we decided to hunt about 100 yards east of where we were sitting and it was a game changer we ended up seeing 7 different bucks over 150 and 3 over 170. They wanted nothing to do with each other or our calls. All focused on does.

So Friday this week comes and my brother and buddy want to go down again. So I plan for it and Friday night they back out, I say forget it I’ll go by myself then. So Saturday morning I wake up late get down to the farm about 8:15-8:20. I decide that it’s not going to hurt anything to be a few more minutes late so I drive around the section and spot a nice 150” ten point working a scrape about 175 yards SE of where I planned on setting up. Then as I go up the next road I see a mammoth I'm guessing low 80s leaving the farm with a doe. So I hurry up and as I walk in I spook a doe but a buck cuts her off and pushes her to about 40 yards from me before he decides I’m not a tree in the beanfield I’m standing in. I don’t worry about it, I get to where I want to hunt get setup sitting against a tree and not even 5 minutes later I start picking out deer under 100 yards. I have a really nice 140” 9pt with an awesome kicker coming from his G2 come in I decide to pass him since he’s young. I keep watching I see an absolute mammoth 8 pt maybe 160s then a 165ish 10pt couple other nice deer too. They are all under 100 yards working does in front of me and it’s just a matter of time before one gets close enough for a shot so I’m waiting enjoying the show and what happens.... PHEASANT HUNTERS!!! Son of a gun. Well after they pass and keep hunting down the property I begin contemplating if I should sit all day. I figured it’d be 11-11:30 before they leave and I stop hearing those stupid dog beepers. And deer started moving around 1:30 the weekend before. So I decided to sit I didn’t want to make the long walk back to the truck to come back out in 2 hours anyways. So 1:00 rolls around and here comes the first deer back into the little stand of trees I’m in. So I begin glassing around and see a nice shooter bedded around 90 yards. Maybe an hour later here comes a nice 8 pt he bumps the shooter out of his bed and chases him off. The wind is howling at this point, glad I wasn’t in a treestand. Then the deer parade started does everywhere little bucks running around I'm watching through the binos trying to pick deer out and seeing what deer is what as they go through the bajillion little trees. Well I think around 4:40 I look over and see a big body and really nice rack working a scrape at 72 yards, I get all excited and next thing I know he takes off in the opposite direction so I'm trying to find him through the trees and a big multiflora rose bush at this time I also said monster spotted. Well maybe 2 minutes go by and he pops out on the same trail as the buck early in the morning so I new the yardage I was going to shoot. Little did I know there were two does literally 10 feet from me, I didn’t see them at all this entire time so I slowly grab for my bow. I think one of them saw it move so I slowly kept getting into position because no matter what it was game over. I get to full draw the buck stops due to the does, I guessed him at 35-37 yards and settled the pin I can see the does stomping out of the corner of my eye and I let the arrow go I hear the good sounding smack and watch him take off out of site. Well I wasn’t sure of the shot and waited, walked up to try to find my arrow I couldnt find it anywhere even looked this morning. I got on blood but it looked dark so I followed it a little more and hung my binos up over the blood on a branch because I began to think it was a liver shot. I backed out and walked all the way back home trying to replay it in my head. I had posted in the snap chat group I put an arrow in a monster and that I thought he’d score 170-180s... they all encouraged me to back out also. (Thanks guys). So morning rolls around I get up at first light and head down to where I had hung the binos and literally 10yards from them there he was. If we was a snake he would have bit me last night in the wide open short grass he laid. Perfect double lung broadside shot. Not much blood at all either. I believe that could be due to the higher entrance and exit due to no angle down. Unfortunately there’s a huge coyote problem down there and he was picked clean in 12 hours. I could pick the whole carcass up by his rack. I elected to take the cape and rack and not take photos in the area due to the situation and respect for the animal. He ended up scoring 157” exact and my biggest buck by .5”.. in my defense I didn’t get a good look at him and I only saw his good side which if he had been symmetrical would have put him in the mid 60s.. I know the guys got a laugh out of it when they got pictures today though because I know I did. I couldn’t be happier with the deer, I hate the outcome but I would have rather been safe and the coyotes getting him than bumping him and never finding him.


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