Awesome hunt - big buck down with a crazy ending!

[WallyGator12000]

I've recently had the blessing of welcoming a my first child into the world, a baby boy, so there hasn't been much time for hunting. I generally take the four days before MN gun opener to bow hunt at a good friend's farm in SE Minnesota, but the time and distance weren't going to work out this year. I have another spot to bow hunt north of the metro, but I hadn't even been able to make it out there more than a couple times so far this fall, with nothing to show for it besides a couple of does seen at a distance.

As a result, I felt quite fortunate when a good friend of mine called me up and invited me to hunt today on his family's property 1.5 hours south of the cities. Because I have an understanding wife, and because I could make a day trip out of it, I was given clearance to head down in the wee hours of Saturday morning and hunt until noon. My friend, his brother and his dad were all going to be slug hunting, but I only bow hunt so I planned to do my best to stick one that way. I was going to wear orange, of course, which took a little getting used to as a bow hunter. When I arrived at their camp around 6:15 they explained to me where I would be sitting. They were going to place me in a stand that overlooked a common travel corridor for deer leaving the ag fields and entering the woods. It was about 25 yards into the hardwoods with a 60 yd strip of crp separating it from a picked corn field.

My buddy showed me the stand in the dark and I quickly got set up. Within about 20 minutes I started to hear some deer making their way towards me from behind me. I couldn't make out what they were right away, but they soon revealed themselves to be two does. One of them caught my movement and bounded away about 50 yds to my right, deeper into the hardwoods. She proceeded to stomp at me, clearly nervous about what she had seen. While that was going on I heard some faint grunting out in the field to my left, so I thought to myself "great, this stupid doe is going to ruin my chance at that buck when she blows at me and takes off." The doe ended up stomping at me for 30 minutes, but never blew. Meanwhile, two more does appeared in the crp and were headed towards the woods and my stand. All of a sudden I heard more grunting and up popped a big buck. I could tell he was a shooter, but he also was missing his right side, it must have broken off in a fight. He started dogging the does and was grunting at them during the chase. One of the does made her way into the woods behind me, and I was concerned she would take the buck with her. But he instead came into the woods directly to my left, and began making his way towards my stand. At this point it's all I can do to keep from shaking, as I've been frozen in the same position while standing for the last 30 minutes because of the 2 does to my right that had me made and were still stomping at me intermittently. But instead of ruining my chance, those does actually really helped me out. The buck focused his attention on them, and kept moving closer to try and figure out what was going on. He mixed in a grunt every now and then as he moved closer to my stand and a shooting lane. I counted 6 points on his left side and had confirmed with myself that I would be shooting him if I got the chance. I couldn't have scripted his path any better. He walked directly in front of my stand at 15 yds, attention focused on the two does to my right. He then turned to slightly quarter away from me and I got the chance to draw. I put the pin behind his right shoulder and released. The shot was solid and he took off with my arrow in his side without about 3 inches of shaft and fletching showing. I was a bit nervous because I didn't get the full pass through, but I knew the shot angle and placement was good, so I wasn't overly concerned. I texted my buddy to tell him the good news, and after waiting a couple of hours I got down to check the blood trail. A short 80 yds later I discovered that the rage broadhead had done its job.

Now here's the really cool part. I got a hold of my buddy and he came over for the victory photo shoot (he unfortunately hadn't gotten a shot at anything that morning, although he had seen a big buck dogging three does in a different part of the woods, but out of range). We were admiring my buck and talking about how cool it was to think about him fighting and breaking of an antler that way, even if it meant he had only half a rack. He had clearly broken it off a while ago because of how the little bit of remaining horn looked weathered. Then we remembered that the landowner had stopped by the day before and given my buddy's dad a shed that he had found a week or so earlier. We brought the deer back to camp and found the "shed" that the landowner had dropped off. But it wasn't actually a shed, it was the busted off right side from my deer! It fit like a glove, and the only piece that was missing is his brow tine on the right side; it must have broken off in a third piece. (Forgive the crooked saw job on the skull cap...definitely not my best work).

I'm really hoping a taxidermist can do a good job of piecing it all back together for a plaque and leather cap mount. I also hope that he can take the right side which looks a little more weathered and has a tiny bit of gnaw marks on it and make it look more like the left. This is my biggest buck ever, and a really cool story especially when you consider the fact that we found the broken off part of his rack. I feel really fortunate to have been invited to hunt at my buddy's property, and ridiculously fortunate to have had such great action when I was only going to be sitting for the morning. Especially when you consider that it was MN gun opener. On top of that I get to return home to an awesome wife and newborn son. Life is good for this happy hunter. Hope you enjoyed the read!

[basssmasher*]

Awesome story!! I'm 44 ( 45 in jan) and I have officially decided to go bow hunting next fall.. This story just adds fuel to the new fire

[rcook72]

Wow!! That is going to be a hard hunt to beat in the future. Congrats on such a nice buck & story to go with it.

[Stratosman]

Whoa! Nice buck and what are the odds of finding the other antler?? Crazy.

[matchset]

That's so cool

[6arrows]

How awesome is that very cool

[nbadger23]

Congrats! That is a very cool story. I bet your wife was shocked it all came together like that as well. Sometimes things just seem meant to happen. Congrats on the new baby boy as well!

[eyeguy 54]

sweet!

[DonBo]

Very cool! I'm sure most any decent taxidermist can fix that up for ya.

[sticknstring]

First off, congrats on your new son! Secondly, That's a cool story about your buck! A good taxidermist can piece it all together like it never happened.

[paceman]

Wow what a great buck and great story. That is one you will never forget!

[Mr.Seaguar]

Thats a cool story. You never would guess something like that would ever happen.

[archerystud]

Cool Story indeed!!!

[bigbucks]

Very cool, congrats.