Was able to take a big bodied buck on the opener of our rifle season here in NE on Saturday the 11th. I sat in my stand during the morning hours and only had minimal deer activity. About 830am my brother shot a decent buck from his stand and told me he had saw quite a few bucks and does before and after he shot his deer. We met up at about 1130am and checked out his deer, took pics, and discussed strategies for the afternoon/evening. We decided to move his deer a few yards away from where it was gutted and put him under an evergreen tree. We did this with the idea of dragging him back in the evening when we were done hunting as we had a long hike back to our vehicle and didn't want to get all sweaty and stinky. My brother graciously offered to let me sit in his stand in the evening for a better chance at a deer. I wasn"™t going to ask because I didn"™t want to seem like a mooch and horn in on his spot even though all the stands we have hung are considered "ścommunity stands"ť- either of us can use them. So about 1230pm I finally got settled in and figured I"™d have a little bit of down time. From that time till about 415pm I had only seen a couple of deer and one was a decent 8pt that was standing behind my stand. He was standing about 15 yds back behind some trees just feet away from the carcass of my brothers dead buck. The Buck was bobbing his head up and down looking at the dead deer and trying to figure out what was up. Then he proceeded to make a circle around my stand all the while moving behind brush and trees not giving me an opportunity to get a shot. He was a nice deer and I was going to take him if I had gotten a chance. He moved off into the distance paralleling a doe that showed up but didn"™t follow her or chase her off. Later on I would be glad that I didn"™t get to shoot this guy.
Now on to the good part. About 5pm things started to get going. Small bucks started to show up grunting and following does. Deer were moving all over the place. Then I could see a doe trotting down a trail right in front of the stand coming right at me. I could hear grunting and then could see a buck following that looked like he had a big rack. I knew right then that I would take the shot when given a chance. So I shouldered my rifle and got ready. I watched the doe stop at a tree 25 yds away in the open. She was looking back at the buck and there was a good chance he was going to go right where she was. Sure enough he ran up to her, stopped broadside and in an instant I aimed and fired and then watched as he ran down an old tractor trail. Knew I hit him good but only saw a little blood. But I did see him run a ways down the road so I just needed to find where he went in the timber at. Mind you it is now about 525pm and getting pretty dark. So I"™m standing in the road looking for blood just kind of looking off to the sides when just inside of the timber about 40 yds in I see a white patch. That was him! Got up to him and was pretty surprised to see that he was bigger than I had thought. A great way to end a long day.
On a side note- it took my brother and I almost two and half hours getting our deer out of the woods-even with the help of a game cart. Curse those hills!
Buck From 11-11-06
) on 11/11/06 as well. Are you sure you didn't shoot him inNortheasternMO 
