The story all starts last May during morel season when I found one side to a heavy horned buck that would push booner status. Come late August after months of scouting for him with no luck I was given some info from my cousin that farms our land that a huge buck was using a small 1-2 acre portion of the farm on a nightly basis. Within a day I hung a new set and set up a trail camera and was rewarded with my 1st picture of a buck I would soon become infatuated with. He would prove to act his age as I sat many nights in late September hunting his core area only to have just a few doe and smaller buck sightings. At this point I backed out and let the farm settle down for the rut. Come the middle of October I checked several cameras I had set out to find that he was a a frequent visitor in portion of our farm that is a big valley. I immediately went in and hung a new set in a small funnel area in between two doe bedding areas on October 17th. On the morning of October 22nd I went in for my first sit with a perfect NW wind. The sit was quite uneventful as I only saw a couple small 1.5 year old bucks. After checking trail cameras in the walk out I was thrilled to see that he was using the area although it was during the middle of the night.
Come the day of October 24th I was stuck at work for a 12 hour shift when I asked my co-workers and boss if I could sneak out early as I wanted to be in the woods after a front passed through. They had no problem and by 1PM I was at home giving my clothes a scent free shower. I made it to my stand just after 3PM and settled in for the night. Around 5PM i decided to do a bleat-grunt sequence . Within minutes I noticed movement about 100 yards to my south. I saw he was a good buck and got my bow ready. As he got to 70 yards I decided to draw my bow so I would be ready when he got into my lanes. At 20 yards he stopped and appeared to have picked me out of the tree. It was at this time that I realized he was the big 10 pter I was after. At this point his turned slighty quartering to and stared at me. After a couple of minutes that felt like an eternity I knew it was now or never and quickly settled the pin on his vitals and released the FMJ tipped with a Rage 2 blade. The arrow found its mark and within minutes I watched the big boy tip over about 75 yards from my tree. After several calls to my old man and girlfriend I finally walked over to him to NO ground shrinkage. He green scored out at 166″ and easily goes down as my top buck to date. I still am in shock and can’t believe that he’s hanging in my garage as I type this. It goes to show that scouting along with hunting stands only in the best conditions pays off. Cheers!
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