My deer season is ruined.

[trader Ron]

i'll be glad when the temp drops still to hot for this old boy

 

[Trout Slayer]

Great buck, CraigMo. Congrats.

 

[CraigMo]

Nice! Go ahead and tell the story!!!!!!!!!!

Really not much of a story....
I had spent a lot of time in the creek bottom and surrounding areas watching the trails, checking tracks, watching patterns, etc. I had shot one doe with my bow, but that was it as far as attracting any attention.
I had noticed a spot where a lot of trails converged, and had seen scrapes and some decent sized rubs show up in that area, just up from the creek, between the creek bottom and a bedding area.
One morning in archery season I saw a decent sized buck one morning (maybe this one) in the fog, at about a hundred yards, on his way to this scrub oak area that I described, but it was way too far for a bow shot, so I just watched him amble across the road. Friday I got a new set of climbing sticks and hang on stand in the mail, so I put it up on the edge of the area on an oak with three trunks. The straightest one had vines all over it, so I buried the climbing sticks in the vines and put the hang-on stand over a thick limb that stuck out about twenty feet up. It doesn't break up the outline of the tree much, and I left a lot of the little branches in place to break up my outline. This was Saturday, early afternoon.
Sunday morning I was in the stand before sunup, although not a lot more, since deer had been moving more mid-morning.
About 8 am I saw a deer coming through on a heavy trail with some overgrowth. Wasn't making any noise, and was sneaking along cautiously, I thought it was a doe until it stepped between a couple small trees and I could see that it ws a decent 8-point. I started moving my Traditions muzzle loader across my body in case he was a shooter, and he must have seen my movement, as he stopped and looked up at me. I froze, and after a minute he went back to sniffing his way along the trail towards me. When he got broadside to me, I was lined up for the shot, but when I looked through the scope at 3X, all I could see was brown hair filling the view. I found his neck, and followed the line of it until I saw the top of his shoulders, then moved a little further back and dropped 1/3 down his ribs for the high angle shot. I took the shot, there was a brief pause, then he came blasting out of the smoke on the same line he'd been travelling, really moving. I thought I could see a spot on his right side, but wasn't sure. He disappeared out of sight, and I heard some big crashes as he cleared out some dead wood in his path. I heard one crash that sounded like he'd piled up, but it was followed by hoofbeats, getting fainter. I was pretty sure he was headed for the next county and a long trail, until I heard a loud, wet cough (close) followed by silence.
I waited in the stand for a bit, then climbed down as silently as I could, and found an 8-inch circle of blood spots where he'd been standing, followed by some scattered spots that stopped after a few yards. I was second-guessing my thoughts about that last cough being close at this point (different deer? Bad shot through no-man's land?) but I marked the blood that I found, and followed his path, walking off to the side of it so I wouldn't mess anything up that I didn't notice first time through. About the time I got twenty yards down his path I started to see huge amounts of blood. I mean, it was like a red paint roller, a foot wide and heavy. A few more yards and I could see him. He'd done part of a loop and was headed back towards me when he got too tired to stand up and laid down, running in place for a bit before that big heart finally gave up. That was the fainter hoof beats I'd heard.
Because he was so close when I shot him, and all the brush, I'd never gotten a good look at his rack until I was standing next to him.
I walked out to get my 4-Wheeler, and Brooks, who's on the lease with me, to help me collect this monster. He asked if I'd shot a buck, (he knew I'd been passing up shots at does), I told him yes. 8-point? he asked, I told him no, barely a 7-pointer. We got back to my stand and I showed him where I'd shot the deer. He dropped down and started following blood while I walked to where the deer was lying and waited for him. He realized that I hadn't waited for him and asked if I knew where the deer was, then walked over to me, looked at the deer, looked at me, looked at the deer, went back and forth like that a few times before I couldn't keep a straight face any more and we were both grinning.
He helped me get him loaded, then took a few pictures for me. I'll post a pic of the mount when John at True Image gets done with it. Turned out the 250gr sabot went through the top of the near lung, then punched a huge hole on the offside lung befoe leaving a dime-sized exit hole. I messed up the far shoulder meat a little, but not much at all He weighed out at 191 pounds.

 

[Springfield 1911]

Awesome story..I am jealous! Nice buck!

 

[MRH]

19 inches is a good Ga. buck. Nice symmetry. I have known several guys who took nice bucks with their muzzleloaders. A couple years ago my brother shot an 8 point and a 10 point within 5 minutes of each other. Talk about ruining a season in a good way.

That extra week before rifle season can give you an advantage just like bowhunting. Man, 10 yards. It isn't easy to get so close to a buck like this. Congrats! Deer season is finally here!