Live from the Stand 2018

The reason I had to leave the thread was because the buck came back pushing the does ahead of him. This is an 84 acre place and I have passed a couple bucks here already this year because of age and/or spread. They must be 13" inside to be legal, but my son and I won't shoot anything younger than 3.5 regardless of width. On other places our criteria goes up, but we never kill more than one buck here and we both have other places to hunt for bigger deer. That said, I'm basically a meat hunter, and not an antler hunter, so this buck, if 3.5, was going in my freezer.

As he fed across the wheat, I was looking at him through my scope. My right eye has retina issues and as he was 125/130 yards away, I couldn't see him well enough to make the call. I picked my binos up with my left hand and determined that I would take him. He looked up and saw his doe leaving and broke into a fast walk up the hill quartering toward me. I mouth bleated at him three times, he would stop and look, but immediately start walking again. I had to open my left window as I saw that he was coming up the hill through the woods to my left. I must have looked like the Keystone Cops trying to get that window opened and latched. When I finally got on him I could see that he was about to move into the last possible lane, (a skidder trail from my last cut), and I bleated loudly again. When he stopped, I squeezed (jerked???:)) the trigger on my .280 Remington.

I could see that his shoulder was broken but in a couple jumps he was out of sight. I sat down and cursed myself for shooting too quickly. I sat for about a minute thinking about what direction I thought he would go, whether he would be laying in sight once I walked out, and about whether he was truly mortally wounded. I packed up my gear, walked out to my cart, went home and harnessed up my JRT for the track. I put him on the spot that I thought the buck was standing and he took up a track. There were four deer in that group, no blood at the place he was shot, so he got on the wrong deer at first. After a couple minutes he stopped trailing and looked around, so I brought him back, he took the correct track, and we found blood within thirty yards. He made short work of the track, probably only 100/125 yards to where he lay dead.

I thank God that I did not wound this deer and lose him, and I thank Sarge for finding him !

Looks like I can't resize enough to post a pic. He was brown, had nine points, and will eat very well !o_O
 
Congratulations Dry Creek. I have been following your posts and enjoying your hunts immensely. It is great that a shooter showed up and you took him. Now the picture thing: he can't be THAT big or maybe he is --just try to resize to 50% three or four times and it likely will take.

I'm with you in often thinking I may have shot too fast but in reality the great deer that I encounter only give me a second or so to make up my mind. Again congratulations, you are a patient guy that would be welcome in my deer camp anytime.
 
Thanks Chainsaw, for the kind words. I took the picture almost as an afterthought after he was field dressed and loaded on my hitch-haul. The only way I know how to resize on this ipad is narrow it and that would cut down his (already modest) rack. ;)

I can post one of my little deer tracking buddy though !image.jpeg
 
Thanks Chainsaw, for the kind words. I took the picture almost as an afterthought after he was field dressed and loaded on my hitch-haul. The only way I know how to resize on this ipad is narrow it and that would cut down his (already modest) rack. ;)

I can post one of my little deer tracking buddy though !View attachment 14139
One of the quickest ways to resize a picture on a phone is to pull up your picture then do a screenshot. Still a really nice looking photo but doesn't takes up any space and will fit the requirements for this site. Might want to try that

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I spent the best 5 weeks of the 2018 deer season doing volunteer work in Texas, fixing houses that were flooded from hurricane Harvey. So when I finally got back to PA to do some serious hunting I settled for the first nice buck that I saw, this 140" nine point. I was totally surprised that he was only 3 1/2 years old, what would he have looked like with another year...
View attachment 14137

BTW, I got caught up in my own drama and forgot to acknowledge that you took a very nice buck there Mennoniteman ! That's a dandy !
 
So when I finally got back to PA to do some serious hunting I settled for the first nice buck that I saw, this 140" nine point.

I only dream of the day when taking a 140" nine point will be categorized as "settling" for me. :D

Congrats, MM! That's a great buck. Good on you for investing so much time in serving others, too!
 
I spent the best 5 weeks of the 2018 deer season doing volunteer work in Texas, fixing houses that were flooded from hurricane Harvey. So when I finally got back to PA to do some serious hunting I settled for the first nice buck that I saw, this 140" nine point. I was totally surprised that he was only 3 1/2 years old, what would he have looked like with another year...
View attachment 14137
I agree, Mennoniteman, he looks older than 3.5
 
View attachment 14140
Well, I downloaded a free app and this is what it came up with. I'll try your method too PineSap. Old dog might be able to learn a new trick !
Download the Tapatalk App on your phone. Search for this Forum. You can upload any photo directly from your phone with no problem. No re-sizing, nothing. Just select and Load.

Nice deer and story, thanks for sharing.
 
I only dream of the day when taking a 140" nine point will be categorized as "settling" for me. :D

Congrats, MM! That's a great buck. Good on you for investing so much time in serving others, too!
Thanks, and I admit that I understated when I said "settle for" this nice buck. It's actually detracting from a great hunting experience to be nonchalant and pretend that a very nice animal is "average". I was totally thrilled to get a 140 inch buck, I didn't mean it to sound like a "this is what I had to settle for" moment. My only minor regret was not recognizing a 3 1/2 yr old and giving him a year.
 
Thanks, and I admit that I understated when I said "settle for" this nice buck. It's actually detracting from a great hunting experience to be nonchalant and pretend that a very nice animal is "average". I was totally thrilled to get a 140 inch buck, I didn't mean it to sound like a "this is what I had to settle for" moment. My only minor regret was not recognizing a 3 1/2 yr old and giving him a year.

Just caught the picture of your deer Mennoniteman. Congratulations. That is a wonderful and great deer! Almost every deer we each shoot would be a better/greater deer next year but realistically since he is already one out of a couple of hundred or maybe even a thousand there is absolutely no need to feel the least bit bad for taking him. I would love to let a deer like that go but my property is not ready yet to keep him going until next year. When and if it ever is he might walk one more year.

And what a grand thing you did fixing houses for the flood victims!
 
Seasons over in a flash! After passing up the two big bucks on my place, I decided to take two does this morning. Shot both about a minute apart, and one doe turned out to be a 2.5 y/o buck. He only has one pedicle and it's a button. Weird, but glad he's out of the gene pool.
bfa5ea1c3586a9b70af5e5bee5f89958.jpg


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Seasons over in a flash! After passing up the two big bucks on my place, I decided to take two does this morning. Shot both about a minute apart, and one doe turned out to be a 2.5 y/o buck. He only has one pedicle and it's a button. Weird, but glad he's out of the gene pool.
bfa5ea1c3586a9b70af5e5bee5f89958.jpg


Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
In Kansas would that be considered an “antlerless “ deer and not affect your antlered tag?
 
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