HuntingNet.com Forums - 07 Shotgun Buck from IL 160" 8pt.

What a season! Shot a 130" 8 with my bow mid-october and a GIANT 160" 8 with my shotgun 1st season. I cannot beleive the way this year has turned out. Here is the story on my 160".
Gun season is a strong tradition in our family, very meaningful to us. With my brother having guys from PA down and my uncle having some from NY it was a BIG deer camp that ended up being a lot of fun.
First morning I went out and sat in a tree overlooking a big field alongthe famous thicket behind our home in Pike County. Me and my buddy went and he sat about 200 yards down the fence in some brush and I took up in a tree and we had the field covered. He had already shot two nice bucks with a bow earlier in the year with his bow, so he was out for does.
I saw a group of does bed down along the fence on the far side of the field around the corner of some good cover brush. Late in the morning I called him and told him that they would be awesome to stalk. I gave him the details on where they were bedded and how to go about doing it. From the stand I watched as he put an awesome stalk on them and got his opening morning doe.
That night I hunted in a field bottom bordering a creek. Itwas relatively slow as I saw a few smaller bucks( the highest going around 120") and left and was still excited about the next day's hunt.
That next morning me and my buddy went out and sat on a timber hillside where bucks were seen chasing earlier in the week. We had a 125+" buck run by us early in the morning chasing a doe. They ran 50 yards and disappeared over the hill. We got up to take a look down the hill and see what was in the field and saw a DANDY 10pt. with a doe right in the middle of the field. We decided that if we could sneek down the hill and get to the fence line he would be about 100yds. out and I could take a good crack at him. When we started we got about halfway down the hill and had to stop because deer were all around us. He eventually chased her out of sight (after we sat and watched him for an hour...).
That night I went to the thicket again on the far side from where my friend killed his doe. I sat in some tall weeds along a field by afence looking towards the thicket. I ended up seeing three fork-horns and 6 does. a doe and grunting fork ran 30 yards right by me and ran over the hill. I was getting pretty unsure about how the hunt would end up. I decided to go back to the thicket and hunt the side where my buddy did kill his deer. (I was all over that thicket trying to be where a big one would walk out) I was ready to just fill my doe tag and wait til next season to get back to buck hunting. I heard shooting ALL morning and was hoping something would happen! I waited long enough and told my buddy to meet me where I was hunting and we were gonna take a walk around the backside of the thicket and circle around the field and meet in the middle. We ended up walking SLOW and stopping every 5 steps to observe our surroundings and look for movement. I told him to go up one ridge and I would go up the other and just cruise the edge of the field and timber and look down into the hollars for bedded does and bucks. I had two does in range in the timber but decided to just keep walking becasue I knew that the thicket was holding something in it, after all, we were staying out of it, we were just on the borders. Well I was watching as I saw a spooked a group of does out across the ravine in the field across from me when I looked down into the timber and saw a monster just walking a trail 60 yards from me! I flipped out and got down and pulled the gun up and put it to him! I knew I had a decent hit by the way he picked his front end up. he wasn't running though he was just looking around not knowing what exactly happened. I shot again and missed and once more and dropped him in his tracks! He ended up rolling down the hillto thebottom of the ravine andI WENT NUTS! I started yelling and hollaringandtook off running down the hill (my gun was unloaded...I shot 3 times) and my pants ripped on a tree limb and I just didn't care! I could not wait to get a better look at him! I was yelling to my buddy that he was a monster and he came running down the hill and I had to just stop and relax and hug him and high five and then go crazy! I called my brother and he came down the hill and it was just an awesome experience! It turns out that this ravine he was in is the EXACT same place that the 170" buck I killed with a bow two years ago had come out of! That is a good peice of timber if I have to say so! This has been another unbeleivable season full of good times and meeting new people and just an awesome hunt! I am so thankful that I was born into the great tradition and owe everything to family. Here are some pictures (although they don't do him the justice) He is a main frame 8 with split brow tines.

13" g2's and 5 1/2 inches of mass all around

My brother and I. He has taught me SO much over the years ...