YEAH!!! Way to go SDH!!! Can't wait to see pics!

So here is a quick pic from my cell... Man I'm shelled after the long drag out... He's not going to score all that great but he should eat just fine - and his body was pretty big actually :-)

Congrats sdh that is a trophy any day.i have one more
sit left before i leave for camps.gun season starts
saturday .good luck to everyone .

That's a good deer there. Looks like a mature deer too. This team has a lot of killers on it. I like it. I'm in a stand right now. I've seen 5 bucks no shooters yet. I've got a good strategy for this afternoons sit. I seen me a whopper last night. I'm gonna take a little bit of a risk and move I'm on him this afternoon. I've been watching him from the other side of the beans. I can move on him with a south wind so I'm gonna try it. Nice deer jay.

Great Looking Deer! I just want to win so we can keep this team together!!

Congratulations SDH! I would be thrilled to death to put something like that down. Glad you got one down before the end of your vacation. I would say your timing was perfect!
Joe, I wish you luck on your next hunt. Sounds like you might be grabbing your rifle this weekend. Have fun.
Andy, I hope you are right about Mr. Whopper. I think it's a good call to be a bit aggressive, especially if the wind is cooperating. Good luck. I want to see a picture of him - DEAD!

Congrats SDH, nice buck, you hunted your a$$ off.

Great buck SDH. It sounds like you deserved it. Way to go.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone... So here's a write up on the story....

---------------------

Up to this point, it had been a fun but exhausting season starting with archery antelope in WY then SD, a 2 week out of state elk hunt then whitetail hunting starting at the end of Sept. With nearly 30 sits underneath my belt and passing many bucks along the way including missing one dandy, my wife’s patience was starting to wear thin and the hour glass on my available hunting time left for the season was starting to run low. It was time to mix things up. I started to come to the realization that if I was going to fill my tag I was going to have to throw a Hail Mary so on Tuesday afternoon I left my private ground and drove over an hour further away, hopeful I would get into an area with better deer numbers. With only 1.5 days left of my deer hunting vacation I decided I was going to hunt a public area that I had briefly checked out prior to the season but never actually hunted.

Tuesday afternoon was promising as I saw numerous deer including 2 smaller bucks within shooting range. Wednesday AM I decided to hunt my private ground closer to home. Shortly after 9AM with no deer sightings, I decided it was time to give the public ground one last shot. Showing up around 11AM, even with the action I saw Tuesday, I decided to setup ½ mile north and try what I thought would be a great cruising area. I walked in, identified what I considered the main trail and set my stand. Shortly after 2:00 I saw a buck cruising through the timber. When he hit around 50-60 yards and went behind some brush I drew, anchored and waited... At 25 yards, I shot - he went around 50 yards and disappeared behind some brush. As it turned out, that was his final resting place. Not a big buck but considering the impending pumpkin army and how my season had been going so far, it was just time to punch my tag – put some venison in the freezer and start making up for all the time I’ve missed with the family this fall….

So here is the buck I missed and still haunts my dreams... The big branch you leave to give yourself more cover - yeah that one bit hard...




I passed these on the way to my new stand site - always a good feeling seeing sign...





View from my last day perch....



My last day public land buck..

Hey,

How are we to score are deer? I have it all scored up but noticed that people included tip to tip length and outside spread into their score when most people only include inside spread. If I add the tip to tip score and the outside spread score things would look a little better like some other people.

Here is the score....let me know if I should add anything.

LM- 12 1/4 --------- RM- 12
G1- 3 1/2 ----------- G1- 3 1/2
G2- 3 ------------- G2- 1
G3- 2 1/2 ----------- G3- N/A
H1- 3 -------------- H1- 3
H2- 3 ------------- H2- 2 1/2
H3- 2 3/4 ----------- H3- 2 1/4
H4- 1 3/4 ------------ H4- 1 3/4

Inside Spread
10 1/2

TOTAL 68 1/4