Well, this is kind of bittersweet for me as it ends a 3 year game of cat and mouse. I have hunted this deer based on trail-cam phots all this time and only got to see him twice. ALL trail-cam photos of this deer were at night. Very nocturnal deer. The first time I finally saw him was last January 8th, 2008during late muzzleloader season and I had him feed in a picked corn field for 30 minutes about 70 yards away. I let him go then because his right browtine was broken off and his left mainbeam was broken off just past his G2. I was heartbroken to say the least. This year I did a little scouting close to the bedding area and found a fresh scrape that I hung a camera on during a rainstorm so it would wash my scent away. I checked it 10 days later during another rain and had his picture from two different days. I put my son on the scrape two different evenings during early muzzleloader season and he did not see a deer.
Then, on the 28th of October, I finally got the right wind and slipped into a small oak tree near the scrape. I carried in a small portable stand. I climbed the tree and began quietly trimming some small limbs to allow room to move a bow around and open up some shooting lanes. I noticed I was pretty comfortable just leaning/sitting on one limb while standing on another and decided I would not risk making any noise bringing the stand up. So, I climbed back down, put on my camo and tied a cord to my bow. I simply went back up to my limb that was only about 12' in the air but offered the best break-up from oak limbs that still held their leaves. Strapped in and pulled my bow up and settled in at about 4:15PM. At about 5:00 I had 4 does walk by within 20 yards and really liked the set-up. At 6:15 I spotted the browtine buck heading for the scrape. He worked several scrapes and fed a little at 40 yards for 10 minutes or more. He then looked as if he was going to move off and not give me the shot I wanted. I let him get just out of site up a fence row and pulled out a can call. I bleated with it behind my back twice and he came on a string, nose to the ground. I drew early and then grunted him to a stop at 10 yards. He was slightly quartering towards so I hugged the back of his left shoulder and took out both lungs and the top of his heart. He ran about 75 yards and crashed just out of sight. I climbed down, inspected my arrow which looked good and slipped out to go wait for a friend that was hunting on one of our spots about a mile away. We came back about one hour later and walked straight to him. He's only 14 3/8 inside, has 42 1/8" of mass and grosses 185 1/8". My best buck to date.
I hesitated posting this because of the way some always doubt and attack someone that has killed an exceptional deer. For the rest of you, please enjoy my deer of a lifetime. It was a true honor to have taken him.
My 185" 15pt Browtine buck (trail pics added)
