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I'm feelin kinda sick......

3K views 23 replies 16 participants last post by  JOHNNY QUEST 
#1 · (Edited)

Feel free to age and score.

We've got till Sunday left of our rifle season. I've committed to try to hunt every afternoon this week. I finally got clearance to drop the hammer on what has, to date been the best buck we have pictures of.

This afternoon I spotted him about 600 yards north of my stand tending a doe and feeding along a waterline in some WRP. They stalled at the corner of a 5 acre food plot as they were traveling north. There was a stiff north breeze blowing and I decided to hit the dirt. Plan was to go north up the gravel road and then turn a couple of hundred yards down the lateral road and pop him when he stopped at the edge of the road.

When I got to the food plot I stopped to check it with my glasses to see if he was still there. He was! I eased over to the corner of the plot where there was a sapling with a perfect fork for my rifle.

There has been some debate as to whether or not to take this deer. He's intended for a clientele that is better heeled than I financially, but we aren't ready to start selling shares yet and a paying hunter taking this buck could well be two years down the road. He'd make a great mount to put in the lodge, and we think he's 4+ and our rut is about done. We decided to take him.

I looked at him with the binoculars, then through the scope, I could see head and neck stickin up out of the grass but couldn't tell where his body was. I wasn't sure of the yardage, he looked really good in the scope and I've done well judging distance lately.t I'd checked those food plots on google earth and thought they were just over 300 corner to corner, he sure looked like he was closer than that but I wasn't certain.

I didn't want to take a shot, (and I felt really good about a neck shot) that someone would criticize later, especially if he didn't drop. We all know that nothing is certain but the LORD, that things happen when we pull the trigger that we sometimes don't expect.

I waited. When he started to ease off I hit the gravel and cut back around on him, but he was too far ahead. He was between 300 and 400 when he hit that lateral road and the light was too far gone.

When I got back here and measured the distance on google earth and found he was only 230 yards max.....I felt weak. I basically got down out of the stand and stalked to within 230 yards of a really nice buck and didn't squeeze the trigger. That doesn't happen every day.

Here's a map.



Here's a pic from the stand.



Here's a couple of pics from last year.


 
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#12 ·
I know it sux but you did the right thing. You can never unsqueeze a trigger and if you would have missed or wounded him, you'd be feeling a lot worse right now. Look at it this way, now you get to keep hunting!

I used to be better at scoring than I am now but I'd guess the deer to be in the mid 150's and either 4.5 or 5.5. Good luck on finding him before Sunday!
 
#22 ·
Thanks JQ! I hunted him again this evening but didn't see him. We'll see what goes the rest of the week, but having been on him like that, I sorta feel like he's already mine wether I get him or not.

He may very well be only a 4 year old and surely won't suffer if he gets another year, but if you look at my original post, the top pic is taken this year and the bottom pics taken last year.........sure doesn't seem like major developement like we'd hoped. I'd say he's several inches wider and a bit heavier. I've seen him in person twice now and he's pretty wide. I'm gonna say 22 plus. Also this guy is a bruiser. Almost all of the 3 year olds and older are well over 200 lbs.
 
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