Yesterday morning I didnt see any thing moving after daylight, I thought for sure they would be up and moving good with the rain on Thursday and no moon all night. But they didnt move at all it seemed. My dad didnt see anything that morning either and the other two hunters only saw a few right after daybreak.
So we decided to get a quick bite to eat and get back in our stands early, thinking they would be moving early afternoon, and we looked at the moon feeding predictors and it said peak feed times was 1:30-4:30, so we thought what the heck might as well sit in the stand. I had a doe come running thru about 1:05 and nothing again until about 2:20 i heard something off to my right and looked and saw a big deer moving through the woods with another behind, i looked at his rack and immediatly new it was a shooter(the lease i hunt on has an 8 pt rule) I didnt even take time to count i could just tell it was a shooter. I grabbed my muzzleloader turned and gave him mouth grunt to stop him and he froze at about 50 yards. There were several small limbs in my way but I thought I would be fine. I put the crosshairs on him and pulled the trigger. When the smoked cleared I could see him running with his head down as he went deeper in the woods and then heard a loud crash. At first wasnt sure if it was him falling or him and the other deer just running then i could make out a couple white flashes through the woods on the ground.
I am not sure of the accuaracy of the moon stuff, but it was enough to convince me to get to the stand early.
As I walked up I could see his rack sticking up and thought oh my this might be the big one we had pics of last year, i could tell he had some major mass.
view as i walked up
i took it later after i already taged him)
I dont know that I will ever be able to shoot another one as big or bigger, this is the biggest ever taken at our lease (16yrs)
He weighed 220 live weight and 170 dressed, this is from South Choctaw county.
to make things even better my dad ended up shooting a really nice 9 later that evening
here is the trail cam pic of last year, he has gone down a little this yr either due to age or drought, but i am not complaining
we could tell for sure it was him from the split ear.
So we decided to get a quick bite to eat and get back in our stands early, thinking they would be moving early afternoon, and we looked at the moon feeding predictors and it said peak feed times was 1:30-4:30, so we thought what the heck might as well sit in the stand. I had a doe come running thru about 1:05 and nothing again until about 2:20 i heard something off to my right and looked and saw a big deer moving through the woods with another behind, i looked at his rack and immediatly new it was a shooter(the lease i hunt on has an 8 pt rule) I didnt even take time to count i could just tell it was a shooter. I grabbed my muzzleloader turned and gave him mouth grunt to stop him and he froze at about 50 yards. There were several small limbs in my way but I thought I would be fine. I put the crosshairs on him and pulled the trigger. When the smoked cleared I could see him running with his head down as he went deeper in the woods and then heard a loud crash. At first wasnt sure if it was him falling or him and the other deer just running then i could make out a couple white flashes through the woods on the ground.
I am not sure of the accuaracy of the moon stuff, but it was enough to convince me to get to the stand early.
As I walked up I could see his rack sticking up and thought oh my this might be the big one we had pics of last year, i could tell he had some major mass.
view as i walked up
i took it later after i already taged him)
I dont know that I will ever be able to shoot another one as big or bigger, this is the biggest ever taken at our lease (16yrs)
He weighed 220 live weight and 170 dressed, this is from South Choctaw county.
to make things even better my dad ended up shooting a really nice 9 later that evening
here is the trail cam pic of last year, he has gone down a little this yr either due to age or drought, but i am not complaining
we could tell for sure it was him from the split ear.
