What a year!

It all started in 2013 when I met my wife. I was given an opportunity to hunt the farm her family as hunted for decades. I was excited after seeing some of the bucks taken over the years by her grandpa, one being an absolute monster.

Before this season I was fortunate to take two does and a 3.5 year old 5pt with a messed up rack. The deer numbers have been down for several years do to EHD and over hunting on neighboring properties.



I started this year without much hope. I planned to hunt quite a bit on state land for meat and occasionally hunt the farm for a chance at a decent buck.

On the evening of Oct 5th I decided I wanted to take my climber into the ticket on the south end of the property. I got about 150 yards into the ticket when the wet gound turned to muck. I lost my boots several times and had to walk out in my socks or I would continue to struggle with stuck boots. Now I'm mad. I was anything but quite and yelled profanities several times. Not my finer moment and thank God my kids weren't with me.

As I'm walking back to my truck I decide to drop the climber and hunt in the stand we have on a small pennisula surrounded by cattails. The wind was good and my cold wet feet would live. At 7pm I look up and there is a good 8pt 20 yards in front of me. He comes within 15 yards and I put an arrow through him. I just smoked my biggest buck to date. I text my family and they agree to help me track it. I get my arrow and ease out to my truck. An hour later we start tracking. Good blood for 50 yards and then its barely dripping. Another 150 yards of hard tracking and we lose the trail. We back out and decide to look again in the moring. Within minutes of starting on day two, my BIL finds it tucked under a blow down. I go from absolute excitement to disappointment after I realize the coyotes beat me to it.



I hunt several times on state land without much sucess. I was able to stalk up to a nice 7pt and two does after a fresh snow fall, but missed my shot. Several more hunts went by without any deer sightings.

I hunt Oct 23rd at the farm with my 8 yr old step son. We are hunting a box blind that over looks an old alfalfa field and some thick bushes/marsh. We see three deer, one being a small buck in the corn field on the property to our east. They were about 300 yards out and not interested in my grunts or bleats.

I take the morning of Nov 24th off and decide to hunt after church. I know my wife's uncle and his son will be out in the to box blinds on the south end of the property. With the SE wind I knew their scent would be blowing into the cattails that surround the pennisula I shot my 8pt on. Farther to the east of that is a section of state woods landlocked by a huge swamp on one side and private property on the others. It sees very little hunting pressure.

I get out a little later than I wanted, but still was in my climber over looking the swamp by 3:15. I did some blind calling but as the afternoon went on I was losing hope of seeing any deer. Just before 5 I look to my right and see a single deer about 50 yards from me. I see a rack. It looks like the wide 8pt I have on my trail camera.

I don't have time to exam him close as he is about to cross the trail I came in on and get down wind of me. I stand up and he looks right at me. I'm busted for sure! He hears something to his right and looks away. I grab my gun and swing around on him. I'm trying to get my sights on him and he looks back my way. Its now or never. I squeeze off a shot from my Mossberg 500 and he drops. He's still kicking, but I figure he is toast.

Somehow he turns himself around and is now crawling his way back towards the swamp. I spined him! I level my gun on him and fire, he is still moving. I fire again and no change. I tell myself to calm down and aim. I take my time and fire my last shot. He flops over and stops moving.

Now I've heard of ground shrinkage before, but never of ground growage. I walk up to the buck and realize I vastly under estimated how big he was. I never thought I'd shoot such a big buck. God truely blessed me this year. It'll be quite some time before I get to say I've just shot my new personal best buck. And I'm okay with that.





Sorry for the long read. Hope you enjoyed.

Damn, what did he field dress out at?

No scale on hand, but we are estimating him at around 200 lbs.

Damn, nice buck OP!

What a season. That 2nd one is a brute. Makes the acorn fed deer where I hunt in Missouri look tiny.

Congrats!