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I saw some pics of that thing last week. Crazy looking. There's a lot of those really trashy looking big bucks like that with a lot of stickers and palmation in that area. I think they look awesome. Tell him congrats!

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There's been several nice bucks out of Hagerman so far. Much better than what I saw coming out of it last year. What section are they hunting this year, do you know?

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Barnes TSX?

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Barnes TSX?

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Wow that's an awesome deer.  Congratulations to your brother.

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Barnes TSX?

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Shows what the hell know.

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Crazy rack on that one. Nice deer, oh and nice mopar too

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That is one cool rack!  I cant decide whether I am glad that one is out of the gene pool though...

This was a hunt of a lifetime that I will never forget. Hagerman gave up one of their resident bucks that was well know for the past several years.

It started back in 1999 when my buddy Rod and I took the IBEP course so I could apply for the Hagerman hunts. After hunting there for the first time, I fell in love with it. It is such a different type of hunt where no baiting is allowed and you have three days to make someting happen. Scouting, your hunting skills and a lot of luck is what you need during these hunts.

I have been selected to hunt five times over the years and have never crossed paths with a big buck until this year.

Saturday morning I was in my stand at 5:20 AM waiting for daylight. Before legal shooting light I had three does walk under my stand and then drift off to the east of me. I thought to myself, things are starting out good.

About 15 minutes before shooting light I hear a buck to the west of me thrashing a tree with his horns. He was getting after it, breaking braches and making my pulse rise. He sounded like he was about 75 to 100 yards away from me. As I hoped he would come my direction, I started going over my shooting lanes and remembering the yardage for each one, just in case.

Legal shooting light arrived and I found myself looking around wondering where the buck went as I did not hear him any more. All of a sudden, he pops out at 35 yards. I look at his antlers and think what the heck is that. My first thought is he is a freak and my second thought was will he meet the 13 inch rule.

I didn't take a shot at him when he was in my first shooting lane because I had not seen the width of his antlers. He satrted walking from the west to the east right past my second shooting lane but I still had not seen a front view of his spread. He got to my third shooting lane and stopped and started feeding on grass. It was perfect text book broad side at twenty yards. I drew my bow, grunted at him with my mouth to see if he would look at me so that I could determine if his spread was at least 13 inches. Well, he looked up and I could see the left side went out past his ear and the other side was right at his ear. I placed my 20 yard pin on the sweet spot and pulled the trigger. Thwack! A good solid hit and off he went.

I couldn't see in the direction he went due to tree branches but I heard the death groan and knew he was done. When I walked up to him I was in shock to say the least.

His final spread was determined to be 15.5 inches. He had a live weight of 156 pounds. He was aged at 6 years old and the Hagerman rangers knew this buck well.

I would like to say thank you to the Hagerman Staff and to Dale, the Grayson game warden for their help. Also to TBH'er Dreamer1 (Scott) for helping me cape and quarter the deer.