Sorry Lip, but I think your buck migrated from up in ND down to central Iowa. We must have better looking does down here!
Actually, I got the chance to harvest a buck I’ve gotten to know fairly well over the past two years. I had him twice last year at close range with the bow in early November, but gave him the pass as he looked to be 3.5 to me last year. I had hoped all year that he would survive the season, and knew I would recognize him if I were to run into him again. I did just that last Saturday, opening morning of Iowa’s early muzzleloader season. Around 7:30 am he came cruising by through the prairie grass in front of me at 100 yards, but wouldn’t stop for anything as he was following a group of does and never gave me a shot. I hunted that same stand Sunday evening, and around 6 pm he came out of the same prairie grass field he went into Saturday morning. I watched him standing in the prairie grass about 150 yards out to my left for 10 agonizing minutes before he decided to come out, but quickly cruised into a grove of small trees in front of me. For another 5 minutes I could hear him going nuts thrashing the trees about, and could only see the tops of small trees shake as he destroyed them. He finally came out towards me at 80 yards, and proceeded to absolutely thrash another tree right in front of me. Still without a comfortable shot, I waited him out until he finally came to the small pond I was sitting over. He stopped quartering towards me at 40 yards, and I put the crosshairs right behind the front left shoulder and squeezed. At the shot he hunched up and ran a 75 yard loop back into the prairie grass, but just stopped and layed down rather than crashing, so I marked the spot and left him overnight, unsure of my shot. I came back at first light to find him expired right where I left him the night before. My shot was on target, but because of the angle only hit one lung and liver.
Turns out he was a mainframe 8, but missing his right brow tine (not broken off, but there was actually a deep hole where it should have been) making him a 7, with deeply split G2’s on both sides and 3 kickers (2 longer than an inch) off his left base, giving him a total of 11 scoreable points. He’s not my biggest antlered buck, but may well be the biggest bodied deer I have harvested. The cool part was that I harvested a 14 pointer with nearly identical split G2’s out of that same stand 2 years and one day earlier with the muzzleloader (Picture 4). Father and son perhaps?
Overall, it was a great weekend, and at last count I saw 19 different bucks and countless does over the 2 days I hunted. Now it’s time to whack one with the Diamond!
So I believe this should make 10+11 = 21 points for Team 10!
What a great looking buck! 
Kudos to you for passing up this buck last year and waiting for a clean shot at him this year! 
