It's getting close to that time of year and I start getting antsy and dreaming about being in the deer stand. Trail cam pictures start rolling in and the anticipation builds. This thread is to try and keep busy until opening day. The goal of this is to tell a story about a deer you hunted. It can be your biggest, your first, one that got away or the most recent but lets see what you've got.
I posted this deer once before when I got him but I like the story and am going to tell it again. I call him "The Ghost Buck." He's not the biggest or oldest deer I've shot but we had some history. My story with him all started one day because it was about to rain. I live on the family farm and had cameras running for months without much to really get excited about. I had an extra bag of corn in my truck and didn't want it to get wet and ruin. I carried it as far from the house as I could stand, dumped it on the ground and set a camera, hopeful to see some pigs for easy pickings off the porch.
Fast forward to checking my game camera for the first time and bam... this guy shows up. This isn't the first picture I had of him but it's a good one. I had videos and plenty of pictures. He was a regular... just always at night. I've had cameras out far and wide for months and not a picture one of him and now I start getting them every night within eye sight of my bedroom window. I never once saw him in person, I just knew he was there and I hunted him hard. Every morning and every evening... I'd be there and he wouldn't.
He did show himself in daylight one day and of course I was out of town that day. I was playing checkers and he was playing chess.
Once rifle season rolled around I was losing my mind. There is a county road not too far from where I was seeing him every night and I feared poachers and road kill. I woke up from many a nightmare thinking someone had shot my deer. I just could't find this deer. He just wouldn't leave a small block of woods and I didn't want to creep in there and run him out. I set up on a wheat field several nights hoping to catch him cruising for does. I would walk the same trail to the field and set up and finally after almost 2 months I saw him for all of 3 seconds as he dogged a doe into a tree line. Disgusted I went home.
The day it happened started out poorly. I got home late from work and didn't have time to take my usual route to hunt. I just drove to a couple hundred yards away and walked in, blue jeans and all. I didn't sit on my normal hillside, I just tucked in by a corner post with a good view of the wheat field and waited. It's getting close to money time and here he comes, in all his glory, walking down the same trail I walked every day and coming within about 5 yards of where I would normally be sitting. I take my time, squeeze off a good shot and he takes off running like he stole something. No kick, no duck, no buck ... just the kind of sprint you hate to see for 300 yards or so and he jumped a fence. I was shooting a 300 Win Mag and it usually has enough punch so I knew I had missed. I walk just to check and the tears in my eyes kept me from doing much good. I went to where he jumped the fence and a see a drop of blood that makes my day.
Long story short... I had drilled him.He just wanted to make me suffer that one last time I guess. He was piled up not too far in the brush and was everything I thought he was.
I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of sad that it was over. It made me sad for a while to check my cameras knowing he wouldn't be there, He was the biggest deer ever taken off this farm and will be for a while I bet. He had broken a couple of tines off in the 2 or 3 days before I shot him so I sent the taxidermist a bunch of pictures and videos of it and got him to fix it. He scored 149 and some change without the tines and just barely goes over the 160 mark with it. He's looking at me while I write this and probably thinking if I'd have done my normal routine, he'd still be out there. I can only assume I had walked somewhere right past him every single day on the way to my spot. He'll always have a place on the wall while I'm around.
That's my story of The Ghost Buck. Who's got another one?
I posted this deer once before when I got him but I like the story and am going to tell it again. I call him "The Ghost Buck." He's not the biggest or oldest deer I've shot but we had some history. My story with him all started one day because it was about to rain. I live on the family farm and had cameras running for months without much to really get excited about. I had an extra bag of corn in my truck and didn't want it to get wet and ruin. I carried it as far from the house as I could stand, dumped it on the ground and set a camera, hopeful to see some pigs for easy pickings off the porch.
Fast forward to checking my game camera for the first time and bam... this guy shows up. This isn't the first picture I had of him but it's a good one. I had videos and plenty of pictures. He was a regular... just always at night. I've had cameras out far and wide for months and not a picture one of him and now I start getting them every night within eye sight of my bedroom window. I never once saw him in person, I just knew he was there and I hunted him hard. Every morning and every evening... I'd be there and he wouldn't.
He did show himself in daylight one day and of course I was out of town that day. I was playing checkers and he was playing chess.
Once rifle season rolled around I was losing my mind. There is a county road not too far from where I was seeing him every night and I feared poachers and road kill. I woke up from many a nightmare thinking someone had shot my deer. I just could't find this deer. He just wouldn't leave a small block of woods and I didn't want to creep in there and run him out. I set up on a wheat field several nights hoping to catch him cruising for does. I would walk the same trail to the field and set up and finally after almost 2 months I saw him for all of 3 seconds as he dogged a doe into a tree line. Disgusted I went home.
The day it happened started out poorly. I got home late from work and didn't have time to take my usual route to hunt. I just drove to a couple hundred yards away and walked in, blue jeans and all. I didn't sit on my normal hillside, I just tucked in by a corner post with a good view of the wheat field and waited. It's getting close to money time and here he comes, in all his glory, walking down the same trail I walked every day and coming within about 5 yards of where I would normally be sitting. I take my time, squeeze off a good shot and he takes off running like he stole something. No kick, no duck, no buck ... just the kind of sprint you hate to see for 300 yards or so and he jumped a fence. I was shooting a 300 Win Mag and it usually has enough punch so I knew I had missed. I walk just to check and the tears in my eyes kept me from doing much good. I went to where he jumped the fence and a see a drop of blood that makes my day.
Long story short... I had drilled him.He just wanted to make me suffer that one last time I guess. He was piled up not too far in the brush and was everything I thought he was.
I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of sad that it was over. It made me sad for a while to check my cameras knowing he wouldn't be there, He was the biggest deer ever taken off this farm and will be for a while I bet. He had broken a couple of tines off in the 2 or 3 days before I shot him so I sent the taxidermist a bunch of pictures and videos of it and got him to fix it. He scored 149 and some change without the tines and just barely goes over the 160 mark with it. He's looking at me while I write this and probably thinking if I'd have done my normal routine, he'd still be out there. I can only assume I had walked somewhere right past him every single day on the way to my spot. He'll always have a place on the wall while I'm around.
That's my story of The Ghost Buck. Who's got another one?
