RE: Team 13
Well, here is the story of this nice buck that I shot. A buddy and I have trail cam pics of this very buck from fall of 06 and at that time he lookedto beabout a 140" 10 pointer with split brow tines. Those long g2s and g3s and split brows made this buck stand out from the rest of the bucks wehad pics of. After two long seasons ofneverlaying my eyes on this buck....I hadmy doubts that he was still around.
That brings us to gun season 08 on friday evening whenI sawa monster 10-12 pointer with a 6-8inch droptine coming off the base of hisleft mainbeam.......the ol ticker was pounding even though he was 350yds+ away. I would guess him to be probably at least 160" buck on the low side. Hewas trotting/cruising off of the neighbor farm and I decided I had a decent, not really, chance of sneakingthrough the creek bottom and getting a crack at him.....long stalk story short......he beat me there and was gone and out of my life.
Down in the dumps....I woke up early the next morning after a longnightfilled with dreamsof getting a crack at the mystery drop tine buck.When mydad finally arrived to pick me up, the argument ensued. I was frustrated that he had told me 5am and was20 minutes late and my stand was a15-20 minute walk from the truck......needless to say Istarted an argument that should've never happened. We threw our verbal blows like we never hadbefore and we were bothinawe at what we had just done. My dadand I usually get along great andabsolutely love that we shareour passion of hunting together, but this morning we were both a little cranky and I was to blame.Still a little emotionally shaken and upset at the things that I had said to him and that he had said tome.....he dropped me off without a smile and into the darkness I went.
By this time Ididn't even feel like hunting....i was upset and didn't know where to go.....after afew hundred yards of beating my self up over the fight i had caused, i realized I forgot my gloves (its 22 degrees) and my shooting sticks, so I stoppedand satbeside an oldhouse trailer that the junkyard owner had dumped (makes a great hunting blind).After what seemed like an eternity trying todecide where to go from there, I decided to sit in the house trailer that was packed with a chair and sliding windows, heck, my hands wouldn't get cold and i would have a gun rest.As darkness wasslowly broken by daylight, I decided to sew things up withthe ol' man.After a couple of long andsorrowful text messages....wewere back in good graces and all was swell in the world......little did I know it would get much better.
At this point, I was just happy that we had been able tosolve the mornings' problems andwouldn't have cared to even see a deer....but I was still hopeful. With my Thompson/Center by my side, I sat patiently in the trailer, peeringoutacross thecouple small bean fields that were parted by a creek bottom. I had aline of brush that came off of a big timbered farm and funneled the deer right to the trailer. After a small buck passedchasing andgrunting with a doe....the next 45 minutes or so was lifeless. No deer or sign of life anywhere near my location. As I was intent on watchingthe bean field that was upwind (assumingthe deer would come from this direction), I caught myself in a dead stare and decided I had better check the other field.......OH SHHHHHHH!!! Therehe is....big daddy himself strolling the edge of the downwind bean fieldwith his head burriedin the ground. he was walkingswiftly as though he were trailing a hot doe, so I quicklygrabbed the .50 cal and centered the crosshairs in preparation for a shot. All that I saw were those tall g2s and g3s and thought.....yes sir....you will do!On a dead walk, i was about to do the signature....maah... tostop him, but he stopped to taste the air with a lip curl and I decided totake the shot. BOOM! ThatT/C Encorelaunched a 250 grain sabot right to that buck, but I had no clue where I had hithim, but the shot felt good and he ran, tail tucked, into the deep creek bed and disappeared. Watching intently for him to come out up the otherbank, I caught a glimpse of his head and rackcome up over the bank but then crash backdown! BIG BUCK DOWN! The rest was history. Called my cuz who was hunting on the next hill and he came down and high fives were exchanged and war hoots followed! My best buck to date was on the ground with13 scorable points and gross score of 156". Hope you enjoyed the story.....Icalled him the trailer trash buck!