Well, this might not be big to guys like Greg, hunsucker, rybo, buckeye, germ, motown,or (insert name), but it's big to me. He was a 10 pointer but broke his right G3 right at the base, 3-4 inches off his left G1, and the tip of his right main beam so he is now a 9 pointer. Spread is 17" inside, 4 1/2" brow tines, 7" g1, 5" g2, 2 1/2" g3, 19" main beams, and a base circumference of 4 3/4. I think he was about 120 gross and now maybe 105 net? You scoring pros tell me what you think.
Anyway, here's the story: I have access to a guy's backyard of 40 acres but it's earn-a-buck (
I earned the buck by shooting an anterless last weekend) andit's pretty much mostly bedding area. Everytime I try to sneak in I get wheezed at then deer scatter in all directions. Well, saturday morning was no different though I tried the 3 step pause 5 step pause approach. On top of it, when I was setting up the climber, I lost my grip on the top piece and it fell onto the bottom piece making a big metallic crash. Suffice to say I was discouraged when I was done climbing.
I'm settled in by 5:30 and legal shooting is about 6:30. Temperature is about 31 degrees. The wind was almost dead calm but swirling which didn't add to my enthusiasm. Right about legal light I hear footsteps to my northwest. Checking the wind by looking at my breath, it wasdrifting to the west. The footsteps got closer and closer to about 40 yards when all of a sudden... stop, STOMP, and turning around. DAMN the swirling wind!
So it's back to waiting. 20 minutes later I hear what I think are real light footsteps about 20 yards tothe southwest. But then they kinda sound like small birds ruffing around in the leaves too. 10 full minutes go by and the sound is now 10 yards from my stand, still to the southwest but I can't see anything becauseit's so thick. At this point I gave up on the sound and put my bow down. No sooner than I did that, I hear those "birds ruffing around in the leaves" sound turn into light footsteps again. I turn my head back to the southwest and I see the silhouette of a deer. Apparently this deer must've been lightly pawing at the ground for the last 10 minutes to be making that sound. Anyway, I quickly but carefully grab my bow and ready myself 'cause the silhouette was quickly moving northwest and into my shooting lane. As it steps out from behind the thick brush I see big body and dark antlers. Once he got into the clear though, he slowed to a 1 1/2 mph creep andwas quartered away at about a 45 degree angle. At a distance of 30-35 yardsand increasing,my range was nearing maxed out.For some reason, string jump entered my mind so I just centered thepin behind the shoulder hoping tohit near the middleonce the arrow gets there... and I let herfly. Point of impact was right near where I wanted it to be around the middle of the deer. It bolted NNW with 10 inches of the arrow sticking out and angling towards the back of the deer. At what I thought was about100 yardshe stopped and all was silent. 1 minute later I heard him take another 3 steps then all was silent again.I felt pretty good about the shot but wasn't too sure so it was time for the waiting game. I was afraid that I only hit one lung and it slowly crept away without me knowing.
2hours later about 9 am another real nice buck (130's)came by but was out of range and I only had one buck tag anyway. An hour later I got down to check for blood and find a tree for a future hunt that was closer to where that second buck was. At the4 hour mark, I decided to take up trailing. I circled and circled for about 40yds of the shot but found no blood so I decided to go to where I last heard him. A fewminutes later I stumbled upon this big heapingpile of a buck. What I noticed first was the plumpfull mid section. Next I thought I only saw one antler as the other was sorta buried in the grass. Come to find out it was intact but chipped and broken everywhere from fighting. He had a hole in the top of his head that I thought was from an archer's arrow. Upon further inspection, it was from fighting. He also had fresh gouges and scars on his neck and head. This boy was not afraid to fight, and from the looks of it, he fought everyone in the county.
Here he is: 240lb live weight... you guys give me a score based on the measurements at the top.
First big archery buck w/pics
