- Joined
- Sep 19, 2014
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- 3,939
WARNING -not a saddle kill-
I'm still in shock. I've had a banner year as far as bucks go and I really thought my season was done after killing my best buck ever in Ohio on October 28th.
The hunt started Friday afternoon. The wife and I decided we were going to backpack in on some private ground we have access to and hunt just to test some gear out and maybe kill a doe for the freezer and pack her out. We hiked a ways and quickly spotted a button buck feeding at 100 yards. My wife hasn't killed a deer in two years so she was ready to kill just about anything. After an hour of watching he finally offered her a shot and she nailed him with my 6.5CM right through the lungs.
It was early in the afternoon so we got him quartered out and packed up and headed farther in to a nice spot on the creek to camp. We got set up and had some fresh backstrap over the fire. Man that was good!
4:30 am this morning we were up and had our coffee and packed up ready to hike the ridge to a spot I have hunted before. It's basically a leeward ridge between two well know buck bedding areas. The wind was out of the S which is perfect for entry from below to catch any deer funneling back into bedding from the top flat. My goal was a nice doe but in the back of my mind I hoped the buck I had been after for two years would step out. Now, I have hunted for this buck in this area several times and never seen him. I have lots of trail cam pics and KNOW he likes to bed in the two bedding areas but never had any luck with him. My hopes of seeing him were honestly very low.
At 7:30 I spotted a fawn feeding down the ridge about 150 yards away. I watched it for a bit, but lost interest after a while and continued scanning the timber. At 7:45 I looked back to that spot and noticed a much bigger deer coming down the ridge. I didn't even pick up my binos I just got him in the scope, just in case. I saw a big frame and instantly knew it was a shooter. He cleared a few trees and I saw that is was HIM! The buck I am after! He was wide open and I had a solid rest so I quickly fired. He ran up the ridge and stopped like I missed him!! :shock: He was craning his neck around a tree and all I could see was from the front shoulder up. I aimed dead center of his neck and squeezed it off. His legs folded and he went down hard!! I jumped up to go running to him the whole time my wife yelling "Slow the down I can't run that fast!!"
I'm still in shock how it all went down and thankful to get him. A buck this size in my area is very rare.
Key to my success here was simply hunting between bedding farthest from any human pressure. There has been heavy gun pressure in the area this year and several guys after this exact deer. I honestly felt a little bad texting a few guys letting them know he met his demise, but I am happy it was me that got to pull the trigger this time
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm still in shock. I've had a banner year as far as bucks go and I really thought my season was done after killing my best buck ever in Ohio on October 28th.
The hunt started Friday afternoon. The wife and I decided we were going to backpack in on some private ground we have access to and hunt just to test some gear out and maybe kill a doe for the freezer and pack her out. We hiked a ways and quickly spotted a button buck feeding at 100 yards. My wife hasn't killed a deer in two years so she was ready to kill just about anything. After an hour of watching he finally offered her a shot and she nailed him with my 6.5CM right through the lungs.
It was early in the afternoon so we got him quartered out and packed up and headed farther in to a nice spot on the creek to camp. We got set up and had some fresh backstrap over the fire. Man that was good!
4:30 am this morning we were up and had our coffee and packed up ready to hike the ridge to a spot I have hunted before. It's basically a leeward ridge between two well know buck bedding areas. The wind was out of the S which is perfect for entry from below to catch any deer funneling back into bedding from the top flat. My goal was a nice doe but in the back of my mind I hoped the buck I had been after for two years would step out. Now, I have hunted for this buck in this area several times and never seen him. I have lots of trail cam pics and KNOW he likes to bed in the two bedding areas but never had any luck with him. My hopes of seeing him were honestly very low.
At 7:30 I spotted a fawn feeding down the ridge about 150 yards away. I watched it for a bit, but lost interest after a while and continued scanning the timber. At 7:45 I looked back to that spot and noticed a much bigger deer coming down the ridge. I didn't even pick up my binos I just got him in the scope, just in case. I saw a big frame and instantly knew it was a shooter. He cleared a few trees and I saw that is was HIM! The buck I am after! He was wide open and I had a solid rest so I quickly fired. He ran up the ridge and stopped like I missed him!! :shock: He was craning his neck around a tree and all I could see was from the front shoulder up. I aimed dead center of his neck and squeezed it off. His legs folded and he went down hard!! I jumped up to go running to him the whole time my wife yelling "Slow the down I can't run that fast!!"
I'm still in shock how it all went down and thankful to get him. A buck this size in my area is very rare.
Key to my success here was simply hunting between bedding farthest from any human pressure. There has been heavy gun pressure in the area this year and several guys after this exact deer. I honestly felt a little bad texting a few guys letting them know he met his demise, but I am happy it was me that got to pull the trigger this time
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
