Filled the Buck tag last night!

[Grayfox]

The evening didn't start out the best but ended perfectly. The morning wasn't that bad either.

I headed to the stand a little early after work and almost ended up screwing that up.

I shower good with scent free soap and threw on my Scentlock bottoms and under armor top and headed out. I grab the bow and fanny pack and head into the woods. I hook the bow on the rope and climb up into the stand. I have my harness on so I hook up and take my fanny pack off and it's then that I notice that my sweater and Scentlock top are missing. What the heck. I can't see them from the stand so I climb back down and walk all the way back out to the truck and find them laying on the ground. So back in I go, soaking wet on top. I get back on stand and spray my whole upper body good with spray and put my clothes on. There is a light wind from the SW and I'm facing North. I came in from the East. About 6 P.M. I see a deer to the North just standing there. It's a small 6 pt buck. He takes off running and head directly down wind of me and stops 40 yards away. He looks around for a while and starts feeding. Passed the test. I lose him on the other side of the hill and 20 minutes later I see a deer coming down the ridge, feeding toward me. I check him in the binoculars and it's a button buck. He comes down the hill and walks 20 yards from me. I can here something on the ridge behind it and figure mama is coming. I turn around and it's a nice 8 point. Not the biggest buck I've ever shot but a nice deer. He's feeding on acorns so I grunt a few times and he stands and looks. He slowly starts feeding my way and I grunt agian and he stops and looks. I'm losing light fast and figure I better shut up if things going to make it in before dark. He's about 40 yards away but it's thick. He starts making his way downwind of me and crosses one of my lanes at 26 yards. I grunt him to stop and take the shot. It looks good and he runs over the hill. I can here him like wheezing 4 times, slower each time and then I here leaves being scraped and then all is quiet. I literally have 2 minutes left to hunt. I wait 15 minutes before I get down and slowly make my way to wher I shot. I find the arrow covered with blood. I slowly ease down the blood trail as he ran the way I was walking out anyway. I go maybe 50 yards and I see him laying on a hill side, head down. Rage went right through the heart. Looks to be a

2 1/2 year old. Good genetics,heavy mass. Would have been a dandy next year but as I get older, I really could care less how big they are. Here's a pic from the stand looking North where I shot him. He came off the hill on the right and if you look on the bottom of the picture you can see the camera straps on the tree. He was in the lane just to the left of center of the pic and near where the logs runs at an angle.

And a couple pictures of the deer. I've got to finish this so I can post up about the 3 grays I took this morning. That'll be in the Varmint section in about 20 minutes. I've got to move a couple stands yet today for Mitch today and hopefully he'll get one bigger than dad.

Good luck to everyone else out there. It's only going to get better from here.

Rob

[RumRiverRat]

Nice!

Looks like a big body!

[reinhard1]

congradulations on a fine buck!!!thanks for the pictures and the story. good luck.

[Powerstroke]

Nice job Gray!! A dandy buck! The trophy is in the eye of the holder. Getting any buck with the bow is a trophy.

[Archerysniper]

Congrats on a great buck

[mabr]

Congrats on a nice buck.

[DonBo]

Way to go Rob! Nice heavy horned buck, no way I'd pass on him.

[Dave S]

Nice work Rob....Great story.

[nbadger23]

Congrats on a great deer! That looks like a very nice stand location. Is that a rub on the tree in the center - left?

[Bear55]

Nice buck Grayfox. Congrats.

[Shu]

Nice buck and great shot!

[Monkster]

Nice shooting Rob! Great pics and story, as usual!

Tell Mitch good luck, I hope to get Josh in the stand next weekend for a while also. Coming down to "crunch time".

Take care, John

[paceman]

Beautiful Buck! Congratulations!

[Grayfox]

Nbadger23,

No rub in the picture. Just the setting sun shining on the base.

John,

Mitch and I got in early this morning from a little fox hunting and he ended up getting two. Went to bed around 5 A.M. and woke him up at 6:20 for a quick shower. He's hunting in a stand we set up yesterday just East of the spot I shot my buck. He called around 9 and asked how long he should stay out and I asked him if he'd seen anything. He says a 10 point a little smaller than mine. It came toward him 1/4ing at him and stopped almost under his stand and then walked off to the NE and he never got a shot. I'm always impresssed with his composure in the stand. He knows what shot angles are acceptable to take with a bow and doesn't force it. We've got some great spots to hunt here during the rut so I know it's just a matter of time before one cruising comes through plus he's never hunted with the decoy yet. That's a blast! Put it on an open ridge in the woods and it's unbelievable how they will make a b line right at it. I told him to stick it out for another hour so he'll be calling soon.

Let us know how Josh does. I hope to see a few pictures of him on here soon. Next weekend should be great. Almost thinking of buying a Minnesota tag myself.

Again, good luck to everyone the next two weeks will be great.

Rob

[Rippinlip]

Congrats on a nice buck Grayfox!

[Scoot]

Congrats! Nice work!!!

[Monkster]

I think you have some pretty good area where you are, not sure the land of 10,000 lakes would live up to your standards...

It's good to hear Mitch is steady in the stand. I think Josh has a ways to go in that department. I just have to make sure I make time to get him out there! Time will tell.

Good luck, hopefully we'll post something soon!

John

[rkhinrichs]

nice!!

[certified jumbo]

awesome deer. congrats on a great shot too!!

[birdswacker]

Rob,

I see your still tying up deer to the trees over there.

Ripley was an experience.

[Grayfox]

Vance,

I told you it would be but everyone should try the madhouse at least once.

For me, I'd rather settle for a smaller deer and hunt a spot where there's NOBODY around.

Trying to tie this one tied up for Mitch right now and another decent one on the left side of the picture.

It's going to get real good around here real soon.

Give me a call and let me know what you and Tim saw up there.

Rob

[birdswacker]

Which camera are you running?

I've got a bushnell and it doesn't take good pictures at all.

[Grayfox]

Vance,

We've got 2 Bushnell trophy cams and 2 older scoutguards(now Bushnell)

They take ok pictures,fast trigger speed(1 second),cheap and small size of unit. Good enough to see what deer you've got on your property but I've seen some cameras that take pictures good enough to put on the wall.

Rob

[slimngrizzly]

Great job and great story GF! Looks like a nice chunky buck!

[mrklean]

congrats on the buck