I just saw this post. Awesome to be out hunting with your family. Awesome write up as well.
I had my back operated on late September and was out of work for 8 weeks and took a couple of weeks vacation time. I bow hunted and rifle hunted without any luck. Then I muzzleloader hunted and was ready to go back to work. I was supposed to work one night shift and then have 3 days off. So I called in for Monday night and went to camp. 11:00 Monday morning I was watching a doe when a nice buck run by. They were both out there around 100 yards. The doe took off and the buck turned to chase it. I fired with the muzzle and gave it a solid hit. I reloaded the muzzleloader and went in the look for it. I found it piled up another 100 yards away. I shot it on December 5th and it weighed 189 pounds dressed. It had an awesome 8 point rack that was 23 1/2 inches wide on the outside width with all long tines. I took it to the taxidermist for a shoulder mount. I am waiting to hear if how it scored for muzzleloader scoring. I am thinking that it would make the 125 needed for our state books. But that honestly doesn’t matter as it is a trophy to me anyway. That’s my first big buck after a fight with cancer in 2015-2016 so I am very pleased with him..