178" N/E Whitetail! (Updated w/story!)

[Elkslayer]

Well my brother did it. I posted pictures of this buck on the trail cam forum. He was the big one that I found out was coming in after I shot my 152" deer out of the stand. I am going to let my brother sign up and tell the story of this buck. There was alot of emotion for him involved with this deer, almost to the point where he decided to quit archery hunting but I will let him tell the story. He connected on this deer today at about 1pm. Both antlers were attached when he shot it. When he walked up to it he saw that the left antler had fallen off as the deer took his death run. We did a quick rough score and came up with 178" and some change. 83 4/8 on the left antler and 77 2/8 on the right antler with a 18" inside spread. This deer has 40 inches of mass. It is kind of bittersweet to have him shoot this buck out of my stand. But I am very proud of him for sticking with it and getting the job done. And its not like he took over the stand, I offered it to him after I shot my deer.
Here are a couple of trail cam pics of him!


Here he is on the ground.

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats to him break out the super glue

[400out]

WOW that's a nice buck! To bad about the antler 

[bearhunter99]

Congrats to your brother on a helluva Whitetail!  With the new rules on broken points being reattached I would think he is still eligible for the books.

[Lightning_Rider]

congrats, that thing is massive 

[denali]

Wow  that is a nice buck and with little time to spare.      congrats to your brother !

[Elkslayer]

A couple more shots!

[elkaholic123]

WOW 

[ser300wsm]

That is an exceptionally nice whitetail buck, congrats to your brother... 

[Elkslayer]

I am curious if we have any Pope & Young or Boone & Crockett measures on here. I understand that B&C changed there rules to allow broken antlers if approved by a board. But what about an antler that was shed. This antler did not break it just popped off at the pedicle as it was about ready to shed.

[rb2506]

no matter what that is a awesome buck, congrats to you bro

[Machias]

 

Congrats to your brother!!!!  Kind of reminds me of a moose hunt someone had a couple of years ago!!  

[GEARHEAD]

niiiiiice!  damn antlers falling off already. time to get the antler catcher thread going, and built.

[BeeMan]

Hey Everyone,  I'm the LUCKY dog that killed this buck!!

First off,  I want to thank my brother for letting me hunt his stand!! He could have easily kept his stand to himself with hopes of finding the sheds and having a shot at this guy again next season.  I never would have had a chance at a buck this big if it wasnt for him and the help of my bro-in-law.  

The story might take a couple minutes to read but I promise its worth your time.

I call myself a LUCKY dog for several reasons but primarily because today was my 3rd chance at this buck in the last 6 days. Not only was it my 3rd chance but I must confess my 3rd shot.  My first 2 shots missed but before you judge my in-accuracy let me tell the story.
After killing his 152 inch buck out of this stand my brother pulled the trail cam card before heading home, when he looked at the pictures he was in for a big surprise.  This monster was in only 1/2 hour before he got in the stand that day.  He sent me a picture of this guy with a message that said "I shot the wrong buck".  He's plenty happy with the buck he shot, but we all know that bucks this big are few and far between and it might be a long time before he has a chance at a buck this big again.

My adventure started with this guy last friday.  I got into the stand around 11 am.  I put my phone on "vibrate" as my family likes to "check-in" periodically with updates as to the amount of activity we are having at the different places we hunt. Never having a short vibrate from the phone bother any deer, I didnt see any harm in leaving my phone this way.  I hadnt had any activity for a few hours and the wind was marginal at best.  Around 2 o'clock I had a couple deer blow in the timber behind me but never came in as they caught my scent.  At 2:45 I started to hear some crunching in the snow coming from the timber off to my left.  A couple minutes later this guy steped out into the open.  I didnt have a clear shot at him where he was standing so I waited before trying to manuver for a shot.  He didnt stand there long and rather than coming out into the open further he decided to walk up the treeline and finally stoped 35 yards away perfectly broadside.  I had a perfect shot except for one problem. A branch from the tree I was in was sagging into my shooting lane as it was being weighed down from snow and ice.  I figured that he would give me a better shot but as I stood up to get my bow a series of 5 different text messages decided to buzz in at the same time.  One buzz would have been fine but 5 caught the deer's attention.  A doe that was coming in with him pegged me instantly and I froze for at least 2 minutes while she stared right at me.  She decided she didnt want to stick around any longer and decided to leave quickly which caused this guy to take a step backwards.  He was ready to leave and fearing I may never get another chance at him I leaned out as far as I could to get past the branch blocking my shot.  Relying on my safety harness to keep me from falling to the ground I squeezed off a shot that unfortunately landed in the ground right beneath him.  He left quickly and I couldnt belive that I blew my chance at him.  I had to make the call to my brother and my brother-in-law that I knew they would never let me live down.  I just missed what we were guessing to be a 180 class buck.
I decided not to hunt over the weekend and decided to try again Monday.  I got in the stand this time at 6:00 AM as we knew from the camera pictures that this guy did not have a regular scheduel for coming around.  After what seemed like the longest, wettest day i have ever had, and several other smaller bucks that I passed on, this guy decided to give me another opportunity.  Just before dark he stepped out again and quickly chased off a couple smaller deer stoping only 16 yards away perfectly broadside once again.  With my heart pounding and no branch blocking my shot this time I slowly stood up, grabbed my bow and carefuly aimed knowing that second chances like this never happen, especially for me.  I let the arrow fly but the bucks response was not what I was expecting. He ran about 10 yards and stopped behind a tree and just stood there for 5 minutes.  I was shure that I had lined that shot up perfectly so i expected him to go down any second.  I was amazed as I watched him once again just head off into the timber.  I got out of my stand and found my arrow burried in the snow and dirt with not a spec of blood on it or anywhere around.  I looked around for 15 minutes shure that there had to be some blood somewhere, but no luck.  Somehow I had once again missed him clean.  I could not belive it, second chance gone and worst of all I had to once again tell my brother and brother-in-law that I had blown another shot at him.  I knew I would never be able to call myself a bow-hunter again.  I got pretty down on myself and that night I seriously considered hanging up my bow for good.  If I couldnt make that easy of a shot I shouldnt be out there throwing arrows around at all.  Sooner or later I could wind up wounding or gut-shooting a deer and I figure that I owe it to these animals to be accurate with my shooting. After talking with my brother and my brother-in-law, they convinced me to shoot my bow the next morning and see if it was still throwing arrows straight.  I was sure the bow was not the problem as it has been dead on all summer durring my practicing.  You can imagine my relief when I found that my arrows were landing a foot low in the target.  After some investigating we found that my arrow rest was only coming up 3/4 of the way when I drew my bow.  Somehow the thing got messed up durring the previous week of hunting.  A quick fix and the arrows were flying straight again.  I got cleaned up and headed straight for the stand.  Never imagining that I would ever see this guy again I was ready to take the next good buck that came by the stand.  A nice 5x5 gave me a chance around 3:30 but the shot never opened up when I needed it to.  Between the tree swaying from the heavy wind and the 5x5 always quartering toward me when the tree was calm, I decided to hold off on taking a shot at him.  
So that leads us to thismorning.  Today my plan was to sit all day and if nothing decent presented itself by 2 in the afternoon I would take the first availiable deer that gave me a clean shot.  (At least I would have some meat for the frezer.)  I was in the stand at 6:00 thismorning and soon a small buck came around tempting me.  He was quickly scared off by a Bobcat that wandered by.  Around 10 the wind shifted for the worst.  Soon after, 2 different deer about 20 mins apart came around and both quickly caught my scent and left letting every other deer within hearing range know it.  Knowing that if the wind didnt change my day could be ruined I decided that I would wait untill 1:00 and if the wind was the same I would try my luck at a different location. At 12:45 I could see a doe heading my way.  Fully expecting her to smell me and leave I was surprised as another small buck was coming right behind her.  She slowed down and began looking at something in the distance off to my right.  To my surprise another deer was heading my way about 100 yds off to my right.  I could see that it was also a buck but I had no Idea it was him untill he was about 40 yds away.  I could not believe it, he was here again and I might get another chance at him.  It didnt take him long to chase off the other 2 deer and before I knew it he was 20 yds away giving me a 3rd opportunity.  I have to admit I said a quick prayer that I would shoot straight!  I tried to stand for the shot but the tree stand made a noise as I began to stand up. I quickly realized I would take this shot sitting down.  The rest is history...A beautiful shot right through both lungs.  He only went about 70 yds.  The only dissapointment was that when he piled up he knocked his left antler loose and it was hanging by a piece of skin on the ground right beside him.  That can be solved easily when it is time to mount him.  I just hope it doesnt effect any potential record book submissions.  

Thanks everyone for all the congrats and thanks for your patience with my long story.  I just had to give the story and this buck the justice they deserved.  

[chester]

awesome story man, congrats on the buck.