BLUF: Had a shooter come by, lost lock, reacquired but didn't confirm but 'assumed' it was the same buck.
I am entirely happy with the clean harvest with a vertical bow which I was not at all sure I could do again as recently as Aug. I took a JV lister with potential out of the lineup but it was the biggest buck I've had on camera since antlers started growing in June.
Why we aren't getting bucks to advance in age class in the local area is another thread/thought.
Happy Veterans Day Weekend:
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So - here it is in as clear detail as I can recall.
I had a mature doe, a BB and a big bodied broke ass fork within 35 yd of me. The broke ass fork, (BAF) kept looking over behind my back to the bedding area... never bristled or otherwise gave an indication that there was another buck close by.
Then I chance it on this slender green ash I am in and take a glance over my right sholder as I hear a deer walking. It's a mature buck neck to brisket, corse coat neck to main tine length etc. "shooter" in my mind... about 22 yrds but over my right sholder with 3 other deer within 35 yds... might as well have been 1000 yds. Once "Shooter"' is established I don't analyze or look at horns. Preface: "Target Fixation" can and does set in....
He goes behind me, winds in this stand SE and are 100% with the thermals, but because I had not put any pine boughs in this one I wouldn't/couldn't check or turn with the other six deer peepers I had in front of me.
Out the right corner of my eye the big boy slides away m'b 75 yards thru trees. Hits a scrape and stands up on its haunches to rub rub for 30 secs... at this point he's following the big doe and I think He's gone, try grunting with BAF 21 yds from me, I'm gonna shoot big boy if given the opportunity.
Big Boy walks off in the direction of the does above to the right or West...
BAF walks off East, BB goes off with mama... I grunt some nothing, grunt louder. Nothing I loose sight of the Big Boy buck and all other deer.
I typed above...
While typing I catch movement, close in my wheelhouse .. glance up see longish tines on both sides of a tree Mmm... Mind says "big boy came back" and I look up and here he's starting to walk off East... it's getting dark, I have one solid shooting lane that way. I saw tines and just went into kill mode. He's now walking right to left behind a screen of trees and brush I left to be able to draw - so I draw, he steps out 'baaa..' I'm looking at the hair I want to split, "Thwack" almost auto-pilot ... Right behind the shoulder, doble lung went 40 yrds, dropped and died well within eyesight.
Then my mind kicks in/my feeble mind. Mmmmm... tines looked a bit smaller, that was the same deer right?, etc.. but Brisket to shoulder don't equate.. not sure why but doubt starts creeping in. Finish the text and climb down. Nope not the same deer Not the shooter I saw but I shot and made a clean harvest and I'm done buck hunting for 2022.
From the time I reacquired or noticed movement the second time to shooting was about 5-6 seconds. See him, he heads off behind brush, hook up and draw, baaa thwack.
Good luck to the hunters still at it!
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