JimiHat
11-04-2009, 10:10 AM
I have hunted for 20 years (as of 2008). Not once have I been lucky enough to put my tag on a true beauty of a whitetail. I'm not saying that I haven't had my chances...but in the early years, shooting was not my forte!
Another reason that I have never put a tag on a giant whitetail is because my father raised us to be meat hunters 1st...antler hunters 2nd. This meant that the first decent sized buck to cross my path usually ended up in the freezer. It hasn't been until the last few years that I have started looking for more in the antler department.
I would like to claim that I hunted hard for this whitetail....you know scouted him for two years...belly crawled 200 yards to get the perfect shot...but this story doesn't go that way. It was luck! Luck was on my side this day. A friend of mine convinced me to hunt an area that I've never hunted before. And after 20 years...this beauty of a deer presented me with a 50 - 60 yard running shot...I can't miss these opportunities anymore. One shot and game over. This buck did have determination to live. After my first shot laid him out flat...he proceeded to get back up and tried again to get away. I was about to shoot again, when a voice of reason (my father) said "don't bother, he's done". The buck slowed to a walk...started to sway...and then his head fell straight down sticking both main beams into the dirt about 2". The buck then fell over and all was done.
At this point I hadn't even realized how nice a buck he truly was...all I knew was that he was a good deer. After several discussions on what he would score, we settled on a gross score in the 160's....we were wrong! The green score for the buck was gross 171 3/8" typical. Unfortunately he broke about 2" off his right G3 keeping him just short of the Henry Kelsey book (I was lucky he never broke the tips off his main beams when he dropped the 2nd time).
big buck down...
http://gallery.menoutdoors.com/gallery/data/1269/DSC_0268.JPG
happy hunter...
http://gallery.menoutdoors.com/gallery/data/1269/DSC_0272.JPG
posing with dad...
http://gallery.menoutdoors.com/gallery/data/1269/DSC_0296.JPG
Another reason that I have never put a tag on a giant whitetail is because my father raised us to be meat hunters 1st...antler hunters 2nd. This meant that the first decent sized buck to cross my path usually ended up in the freezer. It hasn't been until the last few years that I have started looking for more in the antler department.
I would like to claim that I hunted hard for this whitetail....you know scouted him for two years...belly crawled 200 yards to get the perfect shot...but this story doesn't go that way. It was luck! Luck was on my side this day. A friend of mine convinced me to hunt an area that I've never hunted before. And after 20 years...this beauty of a deer presented me with a 50 - 60 yard running shot...I can't miss these opportunities anymore. One shot and game over. This buck did have determination to live. After my first shot laid him out flat...he proceeded to get back up and tried again to get away. I was about to shoot again, when a voice of reason (my father) said "don't bother, he's done". The buck slowed to a walk...started to sway...and then his head fell straight down sticking both main beams into the dirt about 2". The buck then fell over and all was done.
At this point I hadn't even realized how nice a buck he truly was...all I knew was that he was a good deer. After several discussions on what he would score, we settled on a gross score in the 160's....we were wrong! The green score for the buck was gross 171 3/8" typical. Unfortunately he broke about 2" off his right G3 keeping him just short of the Henry Kelsey book (I was lucky he never broke the tips off his main beams when he dropped the 2nd time).
big buck down...
http://gallery.menoutdoors.com/gallery/data/1269/DSC_0268.JPG
happy hunter...
http://gallery.menoutdoors.com/gallery/data/1269/DSC_0272.JPG
posing with dad...
http://gallery.menoutdoors.com/gallery/data/1269/DSC_0296.JPG