HuntingNet.com Forums - Knuckle Head 12 pt with Encore(pic)

Well you often hear guys say I' d rather be lucky then good. Same goes for me, check this story out. :) 2001 firearm season in Illinois(new Encore 209x50) I' m set up on a morning hunt. About 8:00 I see a nice buck coming in on the ridge above me. He works his way towards me and then notices a doe and a fawn that are already near my stand. The buck closes the distance to 50 yrds in a hurry but there' s a bit of brush between me and him. Thought I could get a shot in there however so I settle the crosshairs on his shoulder and squeezed one off. After the smoke cleared he was still standing there. Brush must have deflected more then I thought. Buck just trotted up towards the other deer like it was no big deal. I loaded another round as the buck went up the hill. It was too thick for another shot from the stand so I thought I' d climb down and try for a second shot. There was a revine close that I used to slip up the ridge in the direction the buck headed. I got to the top of the revine and eased up the hill a little more and saw the doe and fawn, but no buck. After probably a minute of watching he finally moved out from behind a tree and gave me what I though was another good shot with a small opening to shoot through. Any way this time I barely clipped about a two inch sapling that I hadn' t noticed and missed again!!! Here' s were the story gets real interesting!! I never thought I' d get that second shot let alone the possiblity of a third so I' d left my fanny pack with my loads and my bullets back on my hook in the stands(which was 100 yds back the other way) After the 2nd shot the buck didn' t have much of a reaction again, just trotted off a bit. Well I took off running down the revine towards my stand climbed up, got my fanny pack and climbed back down. Once down I reloaded and then headed in the direction I had last seen the buck heading. There was an open field out there he was heading towards so I thought I' d try to cut him off at he pass. The lay of the land was perfect for me to stay hidden until I got out to the field edge. I no more then got to the field edge and was looking around for him when he came out of the woods and started angling towards me about 60 yds out. He got within 40 yds and was trotting, I yelled hey trying to stop him but it didnt work so I led him a bit and squeezed off another one(this time in the wide open thank goodness) Dropped him like a brick just as he was getting ready to enter the woods. Like I said I' d rather be lucky then good any day. Atleast I was persistent I guess most guys I told this story too said they would have never gotten down in the first place.

Sorry the pics are so dark I didn' t take the sun into acount when we took them.:eek: