My buck drought is over!
11-24-2006, 09:57 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: East central Illinois
Posts: 84
My buck drought is over!
Seven years to the day I finally got my first real buck. Saturday morning as some of you are aware of I shot a decent 8 pointer than was shot again by another hunter after he had already been down. I argued with the guy over the deer for an hour of so and decided a deer isn't worth getting into a fight over unless it's wall hanging material, besides that it was atleast being harvested, and it was only the second day of the season. I did contact the warden when I found he had already used his buck tag and used someone elses tag on it. In Illinois that's a big no no. The warden did show up that night and questioned the guy according to my buddy who was there that evening and saw the deer go down that morning. I don't know the end result of that confrontation with the warden but I do know he's been kicked off this property for good. Anyways, that same evening I hunted another farm that hadden't been hunted yet atleast to my kowledge and I hadn't been in stand for 20 minutes and had does all around me. At approximately 3:21 pm a buck came running in from the southwest heading straight for those does. I couldn't see how many points he had, but I could tell he was a decent buck none the less with a nice sized body. He circled in behind the does and pushed them out. With him facing back to the west exposing his left side he gave me a good shot and a nice look at his rack. He loooked to be a nice 8 pointer so at roughly 45 yards I knocked him over, and he ran 20 yards before going down for good in some brush. Double lung shot, but upon harvest this is what I found. One side of his rack is beautiful, but the other side failed to grow a G1 and the brow tine grew straight out like a unicorn. Nice buck either way and unique to say the least. His rack will be hanging on a plague on my wall as I enjoy his backstraps this winter.
11-24-2006, 10:15 PM
#2
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: East central Illinois
Posts: 84
RE: My buck drought is over!
The next morning I went back to the property I hunted the previous morning. About half an hour past daylight two jerks decided to set up across the creek about 25 yards away from me. I whistled at them, but they weren't going anywhere. Where's the hunter etiquette these days? So I decided to do some still hunting since there were 20-25 MPH winds blowing out of the north, and that's the direction I started making my way. In a little over an hour and half I covered about 200-225 yards before I jumped two does bedded down in some brush along the creek. They ran straight north. A few moments later I heard a shot in the direction they ran and then a small buck and doe came running through heading my direction. A close shot went off from another hunter just out of my immediate sight, and I saw the small 8 pointer go down, the doe then turned and headed directly my way looking to cross the creek. The creek was way up so she stopped and looked behind her and headed south when she saw the guy who shot the 8 climbing down from his stand. She went south about 30 yards and stopped looking for the easiest way to cross. That is where I took my shot, and she went tumbling down in the creek. The guy who got the buck shouted out "nice shot" and came running over to help me fish her out. He grabbed a long stick and pushed her up on a logjam about 120 yards dowstream from where she fell in. It took my dad and I roughly an hour to pull her up out of the creek, and that's why her hide looks so rough. I had a near perfect shot on her double lung and blew out her aorta, needless to say she didn't run at all and died out pretty quick so she should be a great tasting 2 and half year old doe. She weighed 122lbs, and the buck weighed 178lbs. Both we figured as 2 and half year olds based on the wear from their teeth. The real trophy though is all that meat that went into my freezer.
11-24-2006, 11:37 PM
#4
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location:
Posts: 4
RE: My buck drought is over!
That's a nice buck! He's unique, I would hang him on the wall too! The doe looks pretty big as well. Are you sure your scales were right the doe doesn't look much smaller than the buck, and the bucks weight would seem right on par with his age. Congrats on those deer!
