Well what started out as a coyote hunt turned out for me to have an encounter with a buck I have had a lot of history with for the past 5 years. On Saturday I checked my camera and there were a few deer showing up including the buck that I shot , but what made want to go out on Saturday afternoon was that on my camera for the last three afternoons in a row there were 2 coyotes coming in to eat the apples and I thought I would go and try my luck with them since a friend of mine wants to mount one.
So it was raining steady but I thought I would be ok due to I would be in a ground blind and sheltered from the rain. so I settled in for the afternoon hunt and the steady pitter patter of the rain on the ground blind almost hypnotized me. Then at 6:21 I catch a glimpse of white in the bushes and out steps this buck. I only had to look at him for one second and noticing the huge body on him that I was going to try and take him. So as soon as he lowered his head I raised the crossbow and soon I was looking at his chest through the scope. I settled the crosshairs on the sweet spot low on the shoulder and let the Boo string push a lighted firebolt right off the rail of my phoenix. The bolt cutter found it's mark and that familiar sound of a hit like a paper bag being smacked was heard. Off he went like a rocket and I quickly put my head out the window to see and listen for him as he ran off , but I only heard the rain.
I waited for a half hour and decide to go back to the house and get the kids for the search. I was worried that the rain would wash any sign of blood, and I was right , when I got back to track him there was nothing no blood, no nothing. So I headed in the direction in which I last saw him go , and soon after a short walk of 65 to 70 yards I could see his rack sticking out of the grass with the flashlight. Oh man I was so happy to find him with no blood trail and no tracks at all.
A couple of field photos in the rain and off to the house to hang him and weigh him , my scale said 240 lbs field dressed. The next morning I went to our local hunting store Chesher outdoors and weighed him in there as well due to I have a big buck ticket there , and he still weighed 240 even. So that put me in first place so far , actually it is the second biggest buck ever weighed in that store ever. I was talking to Bill Chesher and he said the deer looked old and got me thinking that he did look like a deer that I was after a few years ago, but his rack has gone done hill a bit. He definitely is the same buck I have a history with and he has kept his mass but the tine length has gone down a bit which is normal for a deer as he gets older. So with the sheds I have and the age of his sheds that would make him 7 or 8 years old. A real old buck in the deer woods. Very cool to finally get the buck that I hunted for so hard a few years ago and I actually thought he was killed or died somehow due to I never got a pic of him at all last year. I guess he was laying low. He is a clean ten pointer and has got some serious mass through his main beams and I am very proud of him that is for sure.