It was a tough but great season. Between the 170+ deadeye buck and the 200 inch monster there was a lot to be excited about. As it stands now deadeye is still alive and will survive the late season (no access for hunters and no one hunting within several square miles of his location). Now I just hope he survives the winter/predators. The 200 inch monster fell to the arrow of a fellow archer around the first part of December. I had pushed all my chips in on hunting the once in a lifetime buck and I found myself scrambling to find another mature buck to hunt after he was killed. I found no shortage of very respectable 3 1/2 year old bucks (120-140 inches). However, finding a mature animal proved to be difficult. This past Friday my wife killed a nice 127 gross 5x5 and a good friend of mine was hunting one of my stands that had several P&Y class animals coming in each day. Unfortunately my friend never got a shot despite sitting the entire day. On Saturday my friend helped me search for my wife's buck which she had hit in the liver. We painstakingly followed the trail 700 yards uphill and recovered my wife's trophy.
It was a good day!
Sunday found me checking cams and I discovered I now had one Mature buck showing....at night of course. My friend hunted my other stand the entire day again and yet again none of the P&Y class animals presented themselves.
This morning I decided to hunt the same stand I had my friend on during the weekend because he wasn't able to hunt and there was generally a lot of action from the nice 3 1/2 year old bucks. I wanted to get a look at them and mainly just enjoy the hunt. I arrived at the stand around 0600 and was settled in by 0615. At 0900 I had a few does come through on one of the travel corridors approximately 80 yards from my stand. At 0930 I had five yearling bucks come into my location. They were milling around for the next 30 minutes and constantly moving between my stand and the travel corridor 80 yards in front of my stand.
At 1000, just as it looked like the yearlings were leaving I caught a flash of antler. I could tell it was a nice buck and I figured it was one of the 3 1/2 year olds. I was finally able to get a good look at the buck and realized he wasn't one I had seen on camera. I could see that he was wide 5x5 with very nice main beams. His mass and tine length were average and I figured he would go 140 gross (give or take an inch or two). I determined that he was 3 1/2 so I decided to pass him up despite his impressive head gear.
He was there only a five minutes when I heard a grunt/snort/wheeze and saw another 5x5 coming down the hill at the buck. I was familiar with this 5x5 as I had many trail cam photos of him. I had judged him at 3 1/2 and 135. They squared off and postured a few moments. Seeing them side by side allowed me to realize the buck I hadn't seen before was actually older than the 5x5 that was a regular at my location. Comparing body shape and size it became obvious that this 5x5 was definitely a mature animal! Fortunately the mature buck won the stand off and stuck around. He was at 35 yards when I took the shot. My arrow hit a few inches lower than the sweet spot but the results were still pretty sweet. I watched him run 25 yards before falling and expiring within seconds.
When I walked up to him his antlers actually looked even more impressive. After finishing the work (700 meter drag) and getting him prepped for butchering I put a tape on his antlers. He has a 19 4/8 inside spread and 23+ inch main beams. His mass is average and tine length is average. His green gross is 148. It didn't matter much but it was a nice surprise since I had judged him as being smaller. After looking at pictures of those giants for the past two season I believe I am completely underestimating a lot of animals and this was one of those cases.
It was a great end to a great season!! I couldn't ask for a more beautiful buck!! Now I am ready to enjoy some fresh venison while I am waiting to see what next season holds!
