My Best Whitetail...it's been a great year

[coonhound]

   I have been seriously blessed this year, 1st I drew a Bighorn sheep tag and was able to harvest a nice Ram and now I get lucky enough to take a great Whitetail.  I had been sitting in my stand 11 hours a day for the 1st 5 days of the season and was feeling a little discouraged.  All I saw were a couple small bucks and a handful of does.  The weather had been clear and my experience is they do most of their moving at night in those conditions.  Finally the weather report said we were going to have an overcast day with a few flurries.  I hit the stand 1hr before daylight just like the prior 5 days but this day I had a feeling things were going to start happening.  On my way into my stand I noticed 4 fresh scrapes, one of them was giant.  I sat patiently until about 7:00am when the 1st doe walked by.  She hung around for awhile and like a dummy I decided to go a head and sit down.  Almost immediately after I sat down, something caught her attention behind me, at about the same time I hear a buck grunt and he's unfortunately right below my stand.  He's a great 4 point and I know there is no way I'll get away with standing up or even just grabbing my bow.  I watched him for a while until he finally moved into a patch of small firs where he started raking his horns. This was my chance, I slowly stood up and grabbed my bow.  He started moving toward my shooting lane and stopped with just his head clear, we stood there for 30 minutes.  My arms were beginning to shake like crazy from just trying to be still. At this point I figured I would never be able to draw my bow and pull off a good shot if he did step out.  Well he finally got bored and instead of taking that next step to clear for a shot he slowly turned and walked back the way he came.  I was bummed but also excited to finally see a mature buck and some good rut activity.

    At 10:30 I was brought to full attention when I heard a buck ripping up a tree, it was right where that 4 point had walked to a few hours earlier.  I got myself ready and soon I could see a deer coming through the thick stuff.  Immediately I could tell it was a buck, I assumed it was the same one I had just watched.  He was coming my way slow and steady and grunting at almost every step.  When he got to about 30 yrds I could tell this was not the same buck, he had way longer main beams, he took a few more steps and I gasped, he had trash, I haven't killed a buck with extras.  Now I'm really excited, I'm giving myself that calming talk, as my hunting partner commonly tells me.  The route he was on would only give me a small window 15 yards right behind my stand, not ideal.  He was about 5 feet from my shooting window when I came to full draw, he must have caught my movement and he stopped.  I thought it was over, I held steady and fortunately after about 30 seconds (felt like 10 minutes) he started walking my way.  He came to the opening and stopped, allowing me to quickly find the spot and send one his way.  I clearly saw the impact, it wasn't perfect, about 5 inches back from where I wanted it.  He ran out about 75 yards and then slowly walked into a thick patch of trees.  My heart sank, I thought this could be a long day, I knew it wasn't a gut shot but was it just liver?  Seconds later I heard a loud crash, I was instantly feeling much better but still wasn't competely convinced it was a death crash.  After taking some time to gain my composure, I was clearly a little rattled, I climbed down and found my arrow. It had great blood and no signs of a gut or liver hit.  I sent a picture of the arrow to my hunting partner and gave him a call at work to talk it through.  I was ready to pull out and give him several hours but the more we talked and looked at the sign we were both convinced I would find him right were I last heard him. By now it's been a little over an hour so I went down to the point of impact and starting the tracking job.  The blood trail was not great, thankgoodnes for the light coat of snow.  When I got close to where I last saw him the blood was almost gone, I was just about ready to pull out and give it more time when I saw what I thought was a white belly.  I crept ahead and there he was, he was even better than I had thought.  I spend lots of time taking pictures and enjoying the moment. 

Jeff


Link to my Sheep Story: https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=228362.45

[SilkOnTheDrySide]

That’s an incredible buck.  Congratulations.


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[Bango skank]

Hell of a buck!

[2MANY]

Jeff,
Congrats on an incredible buck and a great year!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad your health is good as well.
Nice job!

[Milkman]

What a tank!  Congratulations 

[jmscon]

What a great story and season, thanks for sharing!!

[WAcoueshunter]

Wow, what an incredible buck!  Well done!   

[X-Force]

Bomber buck. Awesome season

[Jimmy33]

What an awesome buck!


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[Jimmy33]

Is that a WA WT?


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[Jimmy33]

Is that a WA WT?


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Nevermind....I thought I was on Rokslide. Forgot I was looking at stuff on hunt wa..


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[724wd]

HOLY MOLY!!!!

[Quackwhacker]

Absolutely a stud of a buck! Congratulations. You earned every bit if that one. All day sits a tough. Can't wait for more pics.

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[Dwrecknfish]

Holy cow! What a stud!

[bigmacc]

DANDYYYYYY