cooperjd
Well-known member
Well this year has been one for the books for me. With the antelope, nice deer in Virginia, and the mule deer, its been spectacular. After getting back from Colorado, recovering and working for a few days, I took the week of thanksgiving and went home to TN to rifle hunt with Dad for opening week.
Opening Sunday found me with a nice 9 point in my crosshairs, and as i squeezed the trigger and watched the deer run off unscathed, my great year had a big bump in it. i have not missed a buck in over 10 years, but a big limb about 5 feet in front of my stand that i never paid attention to decided it was time. after a couple hours of searching, i never found the first drop of blood or hair, so i was confident i didn't wound the deer. another guy on our lease got him a few days later, so i had missed him clean.
i was pretty bummed out for a couple days, but Tuesday morning was helping to change my mood. i saw several deer that morning, found a HUGE rub and a ton of scrapes, so i knew a couple nice deer were still running around. I picked Dad up at work at 230 that afternoon and we took off to the farm. I saw a few deer running around thru the woods, and when i looked up and spotted movement on the ridge to my left, i knew it was a pretty good deer. i hunt in some pretty thick woods, so i was only able to catch glimpses of this guy as he was freshening up a couple scrapes up on top of a ridge. i knew that he was a pretty decent deer, and if he would offer a shot i would take it. after scraping a little, i gave him a couple grunts, and he turned towards me and headed through the woods towards me.
i am pretty sure he saw my decoy and was heading towards it, but the thickness of the woods made it difficult to see his body language exactly. but i knew he was coming towards me, so i was looking for a good opening to make a shot. he finally stepped out into a small opening i had, and put my 7mag into his shoulder. he ran maybe 30 yards and fell, and when i got down to see him i could finally see exactly what he was. he is a nice 9 point, right at 18" wide, and has almost 5" bases. he isn't very tall, but with good mass and nice and wide, he's one of my better deer. his beams arent' exactly symmetrical, but they are close. he is sitting in the whitening pot right now, should be done tomorrow, so i'll have a nice euro mount of him to decorate the man room. i haven't put the tape on him yet, he'll probably go 115"ish or so. nice TN deer.
Opening Sunday found me with a nice 9 point in my crosshairs, and as i squeezed the trigger and watched the deer run off unscathed, my great year had a big bump in it. i have not missed a buck in over 10 years, but a big limb about 5 feet in front of my stand that i never paid attention to decided it was time. after a couple hours of searching, i never found the first drop of blood or hair, so i was confident i didn't wound the deer. another guy on our lease got him a few days later, so i had missed him clean.
i was pretty bummed out for a couple days, but Tuesday morning was helping to change my mood. i saw several deer that morning, found a HUGE rub and a ton of scrapes, so i knew a couple nice deer were still running around. I picked Dad up at work at 230 that afternoon and we took off to the farm. I saw a few deer running around thru the woods, and when i looked up and spotted movement on the ridge to my left, i knew it was a pretty good deer. i hunt in some pretty thick woods, so i was only able to catch glimpses of this guy as he was freshening up a couple scrapes up on top of a ridge. i knew that he was a pretty decent deer, and if he would offer a shot i would take it. after scraping a little, i gave him a couple grunts, and he turned towards me and headed through the woods towards me.
i am pretty sure he saw my decoy and was heading towards it, but the thickness of the woods made it difficult to see his body language exactly. but i knew he was coming towards me, so i was looking for a good opening to make a shot. he finally stepped out into a small opening i had, and put my 7mag into his shoulder. he ran maybe 30 yards and fell, and when i got down to see him i could finally see exactly what he was. he is a nice 9 point, right at 18" wide, and has almost 5" bases. he isn't very tall, but with good mass and nice and wide, he's one of my better deer. his beams arent' exactly symmetrical, but they are close. he is sitting in the whitening pot right now, should be done tomorrow, so i'll have a nice euro mount of him to decorate the man room. i haven't put the tape on him yet, he'll probably go 115"ish or so. nice TN deer.
