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I apologize for not doing this sooner, I had two deer hanging and my grinder took a shit, my mother-in-law had a seizure and ended up in the hospital and I was basically forced into coaching my son's 4th grade basketball team which is 1-0. I call this buck "No Name" because I have no real history with him, I have only 3 trail cam pics, which shows a a single antler tine and the other pics are of his body. So Monday of gun opener I sat majority of the day seeing 12 deer total, bucks were chasing does aggressively. I passed on several opportunities at small basket rack bucks and a decent 2.5 or 3.5 year old directly under my stand. Tuesday was much of the same, my boy (Liam) and I had small bucks pushing does in and out of CRP the entire afternoon. Liam shot a doe at about 50 yards then needed my assistance putting her down. We quickly dragged the doe to a tree, where we gutted and hung it until we could retrieve after basketball practice. We finally had the doe hanging at our house around 11 p.m. I took Wednesday and Thursday off due to high winds/low temps, giving the property a chance to rest after romping and stomping dragging our Tuesdays harvest. Friday 12/6 on my way to work, I received a video of two bucks fighting on the Westside of our lease property, the smaller buck was locked up with a shooter. My buddy called after sending the video explaining the small was not doing well appeared to be badly injured, limping off into a near by ditch. I decided I needed to leave work early and picked up my other son (Beau) from school. The was Beau would shoot this badly injured small buck as it needed to be put out of its misery. We get to the west side of property and begin searching for the injured buck, we have no luck searching for over an hour. With about 20 minutes of legal shooting time left I suggest to Beau, "lets go take a look at the other side of the property". We drive and park on the east side of the property, park my work car and walk across to a small parcel or woods and CRP. As my boy and I are walking along our property line and railroad tracks, No Name pops out facing Beau and I. I tell Beau not to move then proceed to shoot the buck in the chest facing me. No Name crumples when I pull the trigger, takes a couple of steps and circles back into the woods. Beau and I quickly go into the other side of the small parcel of woods (3 acres) to see if No Name popped out on the side. He did not, two does were running into the ag field. Beau and I went back to my work car, sat there for about 15 more minutes, giving the buck about 30 total minutes. We attempted to track the buck with my smart phone flash light, as I do not have any flash lights or tracking gear in my work car. By this time Beau started bitching about wanting to go home and look at Christmas lights with his brother and cousins. I take him home (a 20 minute drive) while I am internally having a anxiety attack over this deer. I get him home, tell my wife I believe this deer is dead in the small thick woods, as it did not run out with the other does. I grab my gear, deer cart and a six pack and head back to our lease property. Within 15 yards of where I shot laid No Name. I immediately called @giles, @Fletch, and several other friends, my buddy showed up and helped me load it onto my deer cart.
This deer comes as a culmination of my hunting career, I have had countless close encounters with a handful of bucks of a lifetime, elk and bears with no success. Some were due to equipment malfunctions (misfires), some hitting sticks/branches and the rest just bad luck. I feel extremely blessed especially having done this with my boy standing right next to me.
This deer comes as a culmination of my hunting career, I have had countless close encounters with a handful of bucks of a lifetime, elk and bears with no success. Some were due to equipment malfunctions (misfires), some hitting sticks/branches and the rest just bad luck. I feel extremely blessed especially having done this with my boy standing right next to me.
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