HuntingNet.com Forums - Big Starting Point

I finally took my first buck! I have been deer hunting since I was 8 and I am now 20. It has been a long time coming and I am glad things finally worked out in my favor. I couldn't have asked for a more successful hunt. On Saturday, opening morning here in Indiana, I shot at and missed a nice 8 pointer at 45 yards. This morning I was very happy I missed that 8 pointer because it led me to stay in the woods for another round.

I hadrushed in the woods today because I slept in longer than I had wanted to.I decided to skip the scent free showerwanting to get into the woods quicker.I had been in my tree stand since 8:30 and hadn't seen a thing all morning. I had my Delta buck decoy set up to my right facing the same direction I was facing. I had been trying a few soft grunts with my Buck Roar with nothing coming to investigate. At around 11:30 I decided to give one heck of a performance and try my luck with the buck roar sound. I let out a string of really aggresive grunts being as loud as I could be. After a few minutes here comes a buck through the woods to my left front. I give him a few grunts and he comes in faster. He hangs up a bit sniffing around and looking things over. I give him a few grunts as he fixes his eyes on my decoy. He walks a little further grunting almost every step of the way. I then just let him take a few more steps when he went from quartering towards to almost broadside. At this point he is only 20 yards from me so I decided to take the shot with my 870 Wingmaster 16 gauge. He runs almost instantly but is not using his right front leg. He only travels about 30 yards away from me and then within sight of my stand hefell to the ground. He didn't shed a drop of blood the entire time he ran. After gutting him I found a nice big chunk taken out of his lung. He could only run as far as the wind in his lungs could carry him.

With this being my first buck I have some lofty goals to meet in my future deer seasons in the woods. He is the second biggest deer ever taken on our property. The biggest being a 13 point taken a few years before I was even born. He is an 11 pointer weighing in at 180 lbs. We are going to have him mounted. I can't wait to see how he turns out.

Anyone have a guess at how he would score? I have never actually had to worry about scoring a buck until now. Let me know what you think.