Share your best whitetail pic/story
 

Post a picture/story of your personal best whitetail buck or whitetail hunt.

My most memorable was in 2017 a buddy had invited me out to bow hunt his Iowa farm. It was early Nov and after hunting a couple of days and seeing lots of deer, no shooters with in range. I was privileged to see about a mid 170s buck at 200 yards but he wasn’t about to leave his group of does.

The third morning around 7:45AM a mature buck walked into the little clearing I was sitting on. He came into 17 yards and seemed to be oblivious to me up in a tree. As he turned broadside I release my arrow and he took off into the timber. I headed back to the house and called my buddy. He asked what I had shot and I said I really didn’t know. He was mature and had a rack. He ended up going around 175 yards before piling up. He was slightly quartered to me and I clipped one lung and liver. He didn’t score a lot by Iowa standards, 126” as a 9 point, but I pulled a tooth and he was aged at 5.5 years old. I hope to have enough points to draw again next year.

My biggest was an Illinois 152” 13 point I took with a shotgun.

My Illinois 152”. Champlain Islander was with me on this DIY hunt

Wow this is tough. I have so many. But one I'll share with you guys. It was mid-October several years ago and I was archery hunting in PA and in my tree stand. I had a serious cold and a lot of mucus. About every 5 mins or so I had to spit so I would clear my throat and spit down on the base of the tree. To try and cover it up I would drop a couple drops of buck urine down. About 2 hours into the hunt I saw this buck coming straight toward me about 60-75 yards out. I got ready and when he came close I could see he was a nice little 8 pt (I'm not a trophy hunter) and he was making a bee line to my tree. He came right in and was smelling the base of the tree probably wondering who the stranger in town was. I was watching him from between my feet! All of a sudden he jerked his head up I'm guessing he got a whiff of my saliva. He turned 180* and started walking away. I drew my bow and was tracking him. At about 15 yards he turned to the right giving me a great quartering shot. I made a soft grunt and he stopped and I sent the Magnus Stinger into his boiler room. He bolted for about 40 yards, stopped, staggered and fell over.

I do not hunt for antlers. As a matter of fact I am normally looking for a nice tender doe. But I have taken my share of bucks but got started on whitetails later in life since I grew up in CO and grew up chasing mulies and elk. This is the best buck I have taken:


Took the buck in Potter County PA. Got a good Navy buddy that grew up in that area and I was hunting with him. I had tried to get a doe tag but back in those days they were hard to get and I settled for a buck tag. This was the 2nd year the state had the 3 point on one side law on the books. I was just looking for a meat deer and was a little surprised when this buck stepped out about 200 yards away. A single round from my old 7mm Mag put him down. My buddy was all excited and kept saying how good of a deer it was for that area. He taped right at 19 inches on the inside spread and had 8 points. He had been fighting and had a couple points that had broken tips on them. To remember the hunt I had this one mounted and he is the only deer I have put on the wall.

I got this 160 inch Wisconsin buck in November of 2007 after two days in the stand using an old deer target I used as a decoy. After the shot I called by wife to bring our 7 and 9 year old daughters out to help track. Unfortunately, by the time they got out there I already found him and they all had wet feet from walking through the swamp. They were already commplaining they were cold. My loving wife said she would help drag so we each grabbed a some rope and antler and started our way out of the swamp. Our pulling wasn't in sync so after about ten yards she suddenly stopped pulling. I got tripped up when my feet got tangled up in the rope and antler. Down I went face first into a puddle of water. Somehow, my being wet from head to toe raised all their spirits! When we finally got out to the truck our kids feasted on the poptarts and hot chocolate snacks from my backpack while we finished loading up the buck.

I have a many more but not with pics. This is my shortest yet most heart pounding hunt. Again it was archery season in PA just a couple years ago. I woke up in the morning and it was pouring rain so I climbed back into bed. Later that day about 11:30 it stopped raining so I told my wife I was going out. I got dressed, grabbed my pack and bow and put them in the truck. I only hunt about 2 miles from my house most of the time in either direction. Once there I sprayed down and quietly walked to my stand. I got there at 12:15 or so and all situated. I waited about 15 minutes for everything to quiet down and grabbed my rattle bag and started rattling and grunting. I made about a 30 -45 second sequence. (BTW it was the last week in Oct). As I was hanging my rattling bag back up I dropped it. Oh well I thought, so much for rattling. As I turned my head I saw this guy coming down off the ridge. I grabbed my bow and got ready. He was coming in fast, ears back just looking for a fight. He came to withing 30 yards of me and stopped quartering to me. I couldn't shoot for 2 reasons, his angle and he was behind a laurel bush. He stood there for a full 15 mins looking for those 2 other buck that were fighting and he was sniffing the air. I thought for sure he could hear my heart beating It was thumping loud in my ears. Finally, he started walking down the trail that passed my stand at 18 yards. As he approached my shooting lane I slowly drew back and when he got to it I made a soft grunt with my mouth and he stopped. The Rage zipped right through behind the shoulder about 1/3 up the body. A perfect shot. I watched him sprint for 30 yard and do a summersalt, kick a bit and expire. I got my phone out to call my friend and noticed the time. It was 12:45!!

Another pic ..

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/att...1&d=1636979448