Well, where do I start with my story!? This afternoon (11-13-2004, opening day of rifle season in Central NC) I decide to head out in the woods. I start packing some items and put my clothes on and head out the door. I hadn"t really planned where to hunt this evening, but I had seem some does in this area on our property and thought I might get a chance at something tonight. I get there around 3:00PM and set myself up against a tree looking out on what seemed to be an old logging cutting through the woods. I had sprayed myself down with fresh "dirt" scent and put a camo face-mask on and settled down. My "gear" consisted of green pants, green shirt, face-mask, shooting sticks, scent covers, grunt call, binoculars and some rubber boots. I really didn"t think I would see anything this today and was not expecting much either"
I sit and listen to the wind (breezy day today) and once in a while acorn would drop or leaves falling down and making "deer" noise. I use my grunt call and make a few calls and stop. I do this for a while and around 5:15 I hear something from below (I was sitting on a slope), I pick my bino"s up and glass through them and see movement coming up towards me. At a glance it looks like a doe making her way my way on a frequently used path. As it gets closer I get ready and get the shooting stick ready and set my gun on it and sit motionless. When it came out in the clearing, I see what I can only describe as big antlers on this thing! Now things really start getting shaky if you know what I mean! It starts walking straight towards me and stops about 40 yards and turns right and stops. He is now standing broad side and I have him facing my left. The thought of him cutting back into the heavy thick stuff made me make a quick decision to make the shot. I look through the scope and find my heart beating so hard that the cross-hair is moving to the beat of my heart"great!
I take a deep and shaky breath and exhale, as I hold my breath I slowly squeeze the trigger and PAAW! Next thing I see is the buck flying straight up in the air and backwards making him fall on his back and lay right there kicking! I got him I think to myself! I sit at the base of that tree for about 5 minutes and just smile and scratch my head. I grab my gun and walk down to it and slowly poke it in the eye, nothing, he"s down! I see his neck twitch a few times and observe him to make sure he isn"t going to get up again. Now I am standing there with a big bodied deer and a looong walk home. I drag the deer to a spot where it will be safe to leave and head back home to bring the cavalry out to help me bring it home. I manage to get my brother and father together and we head out to where I left him. They both tease me and say: "This better not be a small deer you always claim is huge!" I tell them both that they will see when we get there! When we arrive, all they said was WOW and big smiles on their faces. "See, I told you he is big", I said. Later during the autopsy I find that the bullet and severed the heart in two and hit part of the lung, the bullet however was found under the skin on the "exit" side of the body, but there was still a very small exit hole. A great hunt and experience, couldn"t be any happier!
A nice 8-pointer with 20.5" spread. Now...I scored this thing according to the B&C online scoring guide and came up with a number of 135. There was about 5 inches of deduction and I dont know if you count that or not. This is my first time ever scoring a deer so I might be way off, let me know if it looks wrong, I will redo it if needed!
Sorry if pics aren't taken in a 'right' manner, this is my biggest buck to date and we were all very excited so excuse the blood and tounge (couldn't get it to stay in).
Oh, by the way, don't open your shirt up like I did in the pics after dragging a deer for a long period, even if you are sweating like a pig. I can feel I am getting sick...[
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One for Team One Shot Big Kill!
