We had a great hunt this year and only got 3 of 7 tags filled, but we'll use them up through the rest of the archery year. Got this guy on the wednesday morning. After a rough few hours in the pop up blind with wind and rain blowing in the windows It was about 9:40am and I was trying to keep my mind off squirrels, turkeys and how cold and wet I was so I was deleting emails off my Blackberry and watching the bush every few moments. I only had about 15 minutes before our crew had decided it was pack up time to move to a different bushlot.
It all came together with a crack of a twig about 50 yards out. I picked him out angling toward my left, down a trail alongside a meadering oxbow creek. Looking through all the hawthornes all I saw at first was legs, then body then the rack. Holy sh*%&it!
A buddy had shot a 4 point buck early in the week so I knew I was now in contention for the biggest buck plaque in the camp, I picked a shooting lane and didn't have my breath timed right, picked the next hole, still too pumped with buck fever, then the next and probably the last as he was now 80 yards and quartering away, awesome, took two slow breaths, exhaled, calmed, then said in my head "don't flinch, don't flinch" BANG!
I knew I nailed him as I didn't blink and I'm sure I saw him buckle on impact through the Bushnell scope and Triple 7 smoke of my Remington Genesis ... but he took off leaping.. tail up and down, funny?? But listening I heard him run for 5 seconds and crash then nothing.. I know they're quiet but I was sure he was down.
I let him sit for 15 minutes before I got up. I searched twice not finding any blood or hair the first time and so many trails I couldn't pick him up. He only went 50 yards from where I shot him. The crash was him falling down the creek embankment breaking a couple branches. I was worried he'd slide into the creek so I first pulled the beast back onto flat ground and tagged my trophy (just showing under my left hand)and prize for the freezer. Great hunt but a tough drag through the hawthorns uphill for 500 yards and then through the pines for another 500 yards till we could reach him wth a truck.
I have to thank my buddy who decided to pack up a few minutes earlier from the opposite pine ridge as we figure that spooked him up towards me, and our other buddy who got permission for this Garden of Eden. He's going up on the wall. It's been 10 years trying to get a big one respectable enough to take to the taxidermist. I've had a lot of does and small basket racked deer in the past to work up to this guy. Best hunt of my life so far...
