My wife and I have been watching this Warrior on game cameras for a few years, but had only seen him in person once inside season, last year, but not long enough to get a shot. I finally got my opportunity last Thursday. The broken tines and main beam, plus the cuts and punctures all over his neck and shoulders tell tales of brutal fighting this fall. He broke off his kicker and his right G4 sometime between Oct 27th and 31st (3rd pic), then broke off half of his left antler - and 3 points along with it - sometime between Monday and Thursday last week. A bit out of normal for me, I used a rifle this season instead of a handgun; a buddy from work built an AR at my shop this summer, then left it with me for storage, and since he's not a hunter, just a steel banger, I told him I was going to put it to good use! Custom Ruger AR-556, 20" 6.5 Grendel running factory Hornady Black 123grn ELD-M's. Hit him at 33yrds, punched the shoulder, cut his heart in half, and turned his lungs into Jello salad. Recovered the bullet under the far side hide, 20yrd run and dump. My taxidermist offered to rebuild his rack based on all of the pictures we have, but I'm planning to leave him just how he was taken, the story is more important to me than the points. Very grateful for the opportunity to bring this big boy home.
