The Dugout - General Topics, Chat, Random Photos and Memes.......No Politics

#54,363
#54,363
  • Like
Reactions: Volprofch05, VolPack22, knoxvol52 and 1 other person
#54,365
#54,365
Halph66 said:
Field dressed, ours were approximately 145 lbs. That's approximately 220 on the hoof. Texas deer are not big bodied.

The big 10 point in Ohio is more like 240-260. He's a toad.
Click to expand...
Those are still big boys.

The land where we hunt has a few big girls. It is about 30 acres of land surrounded by farms. The farmers practically pay hunters to knock down the deer that destroy their crops. People will shoot anything they’ve got at these deer. Between predators, automobiles, and anyone with something more powerful then a slingshot, bucks don’t often get more than 2 years old and anything bigger than a six point is considered “mature.” I don’t know many people who’ve tagged something more than 200 lbs on these lands. “If you don’t shoot ‘em when you see ‘em, you won’t ever see ‘em again” is almost an unwritten rule rule of thumb, sadly. Wildlife management? That is the work of the public schools around here, it has nothing to do with hunting.

My boy got a 130 lb doe two years ago. My wife dropped a 175 lb boy last year. They were both plenty happy. I not needing more meat, sat and watched the last three years as little boys and lots of girls ran around, hoping I might get surprised one day.

When I saw this one, antlers rising above the tall grasses at about 165 yds. on Saturday, I got pretty excited. I finally found the dark horizontal line offset in the intermittent light penetrating the grass. A shorter black silhouette that looked like a midget about 25 yards downslope let me know I had a big one following his girl through the brush. I took the shot.

Went down to harvest him 30 minutes later. I tried to come up the hill short of where I shot him so I could come around where he was and locate him down the slope. I wanted a downhill shot into the bottoms if I needed to finish him.

I jumped him about at about 10 yards up the slope from me (about 20 yards up from where I thought I shot him) as I made my way through the grass on a deer trail. He jumped up, snorted, and blew. Not even wounded. (For shame!)
For some reason, he had gone around the back side of the slope about 30 yards and laid down with his doe.

I saw nothing but horns as I heard the girl jump up, too. I thought I was gonna get demolished by this beast, but he turned away and ran up the slope towards a cluster of hardwoods. I heard his girl run the opposite way down the hill towards a creekbed. The boy hit a trail midway up the slope and veered to the right. I was shaking as I raised my rifle, but took a breath and calmed as I let out a modest whistle. He still ran. I was no longer nervous, I was now pissed off at how embarrassing I was going to be for missing the chance to tag this buck! I whistled again. I’d caught my breath and this time I was much louder, and much more effective. The buck paused, then turned towards me and slowed to a trot towards the right at about 100 yards.

I leveled my .308, saw nothing but winter brown in my scope, and took the next shot. The reaction was immediate. His jump let me know the bullet struck, and I knew then it was going to be quick! He planted his hoof and turned. He ran in the direction his girl had fled, stumbled almost immediately for about 5 strides and dropped under an oak tree.

I called my middle son from his bow blind in the hardwoods behind me. He spotted the buck’s white belly under the tree from 200 yards away.

As we approached, he said, “Dad, we’re not there yet and I can tell you’ve got a big spread 8 laying there.”

Got to him, and he sure looked big to me.

My boy and I had a bet on how big he’d be. I thought 200. He said no way. “Dad, I’m just over 220, and that deer is bigger than me.”

He was right. This guy weighed in at 226 lbs. Biggest deer I’d ever seen in 9 years of hunting, and I got him. I knew I did good when all the rednecks in their trucks at the processors were giving me a honk and a thumbs up as I pulled in and they unloaded this guy. The Charlotte hunters with their 90 pound spike nodded approvingly as he was hoisted up for skinning.
I headed back to the stand to sit with my boy through the day.

We saw a little more action late that afternoon. A doe from the bottoms was chased by a spike I’d seen crossing the field 11 hours earlier, just before sunrise. We glassed what we believed to be another large buck in the creekbed brush at about 260 yards, but he didn’t come out before dark to play.

I’m delighted I got to share this experience with my boy. For his part, he said he wasn’t even jealous; he was happy for me. I usually just shoot girls and let my son or my wife shoot horns. This time, I happened to be the only one in the stand, so it was my turn to shoot.

I would say I want some day to write a short story about this hunt and the memories I made, but I think I just did. I enjoyed that, too.

For reference, my son is 6’2”, just over 220 lbs.
Hope you enjoyed my story.

-RW-BEF25CD5-01D5-4333-A911-51B9D013F04A.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: cobbwebb0710, Halph66, VolPack22 and 1 other person
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top