Hunted yesterday afternoon. NW wind that was kinda swirling to the west and then back to the North, not ideal, but my best option.
Last week had a nice deer slip by me by crossing the far end of the road i have planted in clover. I texted my dad whose out of town the picture, saying we need to clear that area so we have more time to get a shot on a deer crossing to cheek that clover.
Well sure enough around 5:15 a doe come out of the left side near the creek bottom and walks up towards my clover and looks behind her. She then immediately walks back down to creek and off to the right. I have a spike downwind of me to the right of this clover in my turnips, so im keeping an eye on him. I look back towards where the doe was and see horns and a large body. Put scope up and get a glimpse of antlers but his head is in the brush on the right side but he stops broadside for a second. Have had a deer put the slip on me at this exact location, so I dont hesitate and put a round in the sweet spot. Hear him take off make a loud noise and then a pause and another loud noise, but didnt sound loud enough to the death crash. Start 2nd guessing myself. did he crash? did i miss? did i hit brush? Well i didnt have long to think before I check back on the spik in my turnips dead down wind and sure enough one of 3 mature deer to frequent out farm is broadside staring down to the creek where i just shot. See his rack and immediately know he is my shooter. Put scope on him and squeeze. 5 mins of legal light left and its cloudy so my light is all but gone, so i couldnt see what he did. No crash.
Give em 10 mins as I walk my bro in law hunted the back section through what happened.
Walk to the 2nd deer. Cant find blood. Middle of big turnip leaves and not a drop. we made a loop at the end of the trail to turn tractor and atv around, so i walked the loop. No blood. Walk back towards the stand and look into the briars and there he lays. Search around him and not a drop of blood. Went 20 yds, but through briars too thick to walk through. Literally took 30 mins to drag him 20 yds.
I knew that deer was a good buck, but wasn't so sure about the 1st deer. Was hoping he is the big mature 7, no eye guards, who had been walking that creek. Walk to where I thought he was at, no blood. Starting to 2nd guess myself for the 2nd time. Brother in law walks to get the truck and 25yds further that I looked he said I GOT BLOOD. He follows blood 50 yds through the creek bed and into a pine thicket and there lays the first deer I shot, a 2.5 year old 6 pointer. Would have been happy with the first deer alone, but the 2nd one takes the cake
The deer on the left is at least 3.5-4.5 years old and was the most mature deer on our farm. Going to cut out both jaw bones to get deer aged. He is the largest deer killed here in 3 years and is top 3 biggest we have on camera. You can see from my smile that I couldn't be happier with these deer. Deer on the right has 2 broke points and some scarring on his head from fighting.