Yep, same buck has eluded me the past 3 years. In 04 he was a really nice 2-1/2 year old8 point that I may have passed up if I had actually got a chance at him. I had started seeing him in mid-June that season but I was really after a non-typical 12 point that he was running with. I saw this deer clean up till about 2 weeks before archery season and then he disappeared.
The buck re-appeared at my feeder in January of 2005 and I got alot of pics of him until he shed his antlers. I hunted his sheds that season but never found them.
Fast-forward to early June of 2005. My grandfather told me that while getting his gear out of the shed for his fishing trip to Canada he saw a really wide buck in the backyard. I put the camera out and started getting pictures of him...
As the summer rolled on I watched this deer come out every evening and I watched him grow from the wide 8 point into a really nice 10 point.
Right around when the bucks started to shed their velvet this big boy disappeared on me again. I kept my game cameras running throughout archery season and never got a picture of him and I never saw him. Rifle season started up and my cameras were still out without any pictures of him. The last week of rifle season I saw a buck that might have been this guy but it was hard to tell as the buck was running through a patch of x-mas trees in between my buddy and I. I just caught a glimpse of antlers and they appeared to be this buck's but I can't be sure. Rifle season ended and late archery season opened. Game cameras were still out and still no pics of this buck. I kept the cameras out all spring and never saw the buck.
Fast forward to summer of 2006. I set out the game cameras overlooking my feeder and hoped for the best. I was getting pictures of deer but not this guy. My heart kept sinking a little more each day that I didn't see him and thoughts of him getting hit by a car were running through my head. Finally I checked my camera and got a picture of him. He looked alot like he did the previous yearbut a good bitbigger than he was at the same time last year.
Yet again, he disappeared from the camera and my nerves kept getting worked up. Finally almost two monthslater he showed up again and I noticed that he was starting to grow some junk on his left side.
After this picture he disappeared again. I started scouting him pretty hard and while watching a soybean field I got a glimpse behind me and there he was with a bunch of other bucks. They walked across a dirt road and disappeared. I finally decided to set the camera up in the little soybean field that the trail they walked on led to and sure enough I started getting pictures of him and all of his friends.
I kept the camera in this area and pulled it after a week or so as not to spook this buck. I was getting pictures of him moving throughout the day and didn't want to change that. I took my camera and moved it about 3/4 miles away to a different patch of woods. After awhile I checked the camera and got pics of the big guy in this area which was actually a much better area for me as it is my "honey hole" that only my best-friend and I have permission to hunt and I know these woods like the back of my hand.
After I got these pics he disappeared again. I kept the cameras out and never got him on camera again. Archery season started up and the cameras were out without a picture or a sighting of him. Finally towards the end of October I saw this buck. Hecame out on a trail about 15 yards from my hang on stand and stood there, the only problem is that I was in my climber about 80 yards from him and he never came in. This was my last sighting of him and I kept my cameras out throughout rifle season and they are still out right now. I talked to my neighbor awhile back and he told me that he had seen the big buck behind his house after rifle season so he is still running around. I finally went out shed-hunting in his turf today but didn't find any sheds let alone his. Next season is it, I am done playing the cat and mouse game and next season he is going to fall to my arrow.