Nice buck! He sure covered some ground!
I had to pay my dues this weekend and take my gal to Fort Worth for the weekend, so I didn't get to hunt much. Got back late Saturday, so Sunday morning was going to be my only chance to hunt all weekend.
Got up Sunday morning and damn battery was down on truck. Buddy had already left for his stand, battery for skeet thrower was dead, charger out on loan, so I was stuck. Decided to pull the tractor out of the barn and drive it up to house and jump truck. Took for freakin ever, but I finally got it started, put the tractor up, on my way. By now it was already way light, so I was pissed. Got to the gate of the ranch and for some reason I thought I had left the gate at home open. Fly back to the house, gate was closed. Head back to ranch, madder than hell. Decided I didn't want to hunt main ranch because I wanted to kill first thing that stepped out in front of me, regardless of what it was. I needed meat, and I needed blood, so it was off to another area that I had a good wind for a particular stand I had never hunted this year. Sun is nearly up by now, it was about 75 degrees, I was sweating, down to blue jeans and short sleeve camo shirt and madder than a wet hen. Something was going to get stuck if it got out in front of me. Walked to the stand and I hear a racket. Get to where I could see and a forkhorn and spike are out there duking it out over a doe they were chasing around. I stepped in the wide open and they all look at me, then go back to fighting. The doe was 30 yards upwind and I started to draw back on her, but I am horrible at gauging ground level distance and didn't want to spend my morning tracking a gut shot doe, so I proceeded to take a few steps and they ran off. Got in my stand and strapped my safety harness to the tree and sat down. Got my doe bleat out of my pocket and hit it twice. Within a minute, I see movement to my left, same trail I had came in on, and it walked behind a cedar at under 20 yards. He stepped out and I could see horns, but I didn't even bother to look at them, I just knew I was going to shoot it. About the time I get to full draw and settle the pins, a deer downwind of me blows loudly and he throws his head back, so I let one fly. He makes a big donkey kick and I see the arrow fall on the ground and he runs out of sight. I stare at the arrow in disbelief, I could see at least 2/3 of it and couldn't figure out what happened. Waited a couple of minutes, then climbed down to look at my arrow. Luckily, it was shorter than I first thought, and about 6 inches of it were broken off in the deer. Went to where I lost sight of him and found a drop of blood, stuck the arrow in the ground, and went back to the house. Called my buddy and told him the story and he came over. When I started replaying the shot in my head, it was further forward than I wanted, so I pulled up a deer diagram on my phone to see exactly what was where. I started feeling good as it was right by the heart.
Got back to the scene of the crime about two hours later and started trailing. Trail was pretty scarce, but I love a challenging trail, so we worked it for about 40 yards and I look up and see him laying there. This is what I ended up with. Not bad for a late, 5 minute hunt, in the heat. Definitely would not have shot him on the main part of the ranch where we manage, but he'll work for an anger kill.
Checked game cams later that afternoon and found him nearly a mile away on another camera. Noticed that on quite a few bucks over the last week, they are covering some ground.
sucks you had to settle for such a dink
Dang he has LOOONG g2's.. very nice buck! Probably 140" buck?-You must have some monsters on the lease you manage.
That's a lot better angle, but still don't see anywhere near 160"From the McAAP web page, a different angle reveals a lot. Lot a great bucks taken down there this year too.
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