Mr. Spread
 

I have several trail cam photos of this buck who I named Mr. Spread. On Oct. 6, I was in my stand with a nice north western wind in my face, just about sundown, I had 2 small bucks come by, they disappeared then came back, after sundown, with these 2 below my stand, i could hear scraping and rubbing going on behind me, i was standing with my self facing east, i was planning to have a shot to the north, looking over my shoulder into the darkening woods, i could make out 5 bucks. The buck who I was 95% sure Mr. Spread started to walk thru my shooting lane. I let out a soft, baaaa, to stop him, but he took another step so i let it out a little louder, BAaaa. He stopped perfectly broadside at 19 yards. I drew my bow and just got the pin setting when the other bucks below me spooked. My Crimson Talon xt caught him just behind the diaphram, i thought it was in front of it. anyway, he bounded off into an uncut milo field heading due north the last i could see. I waited about 40 minutes and went to search in the darkness, i had called a friend to help me search. after going several hundred yards, we backed out knowing it was a bad hit. I searched most all day wedn.. to no avail. i kept up searching for him every day except thurs. yesterday, after searching the milo again for about an hour, i moved over to search the soybean field, again, nothing, i was walking along the timber edge headed for my truck when,....I could smell him! I bounded off into the timber and quickly began finding parts, the coyotes had surely made a meal of him but after a bit of searching, I found the rest of him. I had walked over him twice in my past searches. He grosses 168 1/8" and has an incredible 23 2/8" inside spread. I'm just really glad i finally found him, I couldnt let it go. I will have to find or buy a cape as I plan to have him mounted.

Persitence (sp?) pays off. Congrats on a great deer and stickin it out.

Thats a really good deer, glad you found him, sucks about the coyotes getting him. CONGRATS!!!

Awesome buck, to bad for the yotes I've had that happen as welll I know it sucks but finding your prize is what counts. Congrats

Congrats - nice deer (awesome to have the trail photos too)

Great buck. Even better that you have the trail cam photos too. Congratulations.

congrats on finding it.

very nice buck, congrats on finding him and sticking it out and never giving up... Awesome!

Congrats teammate. Awesome buck.

That's a dam shame to lose the deer to coyotes, but good persistence in trying to locate the deer. File all of that info. away for the next time you have a tricky tracking job. Hopefully, you can at least take a little knowledge and experience away from this that may help you find another one in the future. Big deer seem to have the ability to go further than we think they can.