So November 4th is my birthday (the big 18, I know I'm old...) and it's also usually prime time whitetail deer rut! I woke up bright and early on saturday to get in stand for an almost birthday hunt. I sat for a good hour until i finally saw a deer. A small spike with only one side of his rack, he ended up walking within 3 yards of my stand. He walked off having no idea i was there! In three years maybe he'll be big enough! then at 8:00 am I caught movement about 80 yards to my right. I turned and immediately saw that the deer had antlers and i started to get my hopes up thinking that maybe this is one of the big bucks we have picture of from our trail cameras. As he came closer I didn't really recognize him, but I did see that he was probably a shooter! As he came closer i figured that he was about 21" inside spread but not very tall, but being that wide I figure he would score pretty well and i knew i wanted to shoot him!
He came out of the brush at about 19 yards and walked on the way past my stand broadside and i took the shot at 18 yards. I got a complete pass thru and had a very good shot! He ran about 20 yards and i watched him drop.
After getting him back to the house I grabbed the measuring tape and the inside spread was 23 7/8" which is almost 3 inches bigger than I had thought!!! After doing a rough score on him I got 151 1/2" and a typical score of 140! Which makes him qualify for Pope & Young record books.
He is the 2nd Pope & Young I've shot and is my biggest buck so far!