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Rumor has it... Joel????? - with pics

Deitz Dittrich
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Hotspotter Veteran

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Not a rumor! I don't know if he'll go 140", but it's a great buck nonetheless, and I couldn't care less what he scores.

Yesterday was a day of days, and I was lucky enough to harvest a great animal on our own land. So much of the story points back to right place/right time and luck, with only a small part won to preparation.

Rewind to Saturday morning, when a great buck is roaming our river bottoms at first light, about 200 yards away. 5 minutes later, he kicks up 4 does, and by sheer luck, they skirted my range and when in-range, were only behind trees and brush. I knew he wasn't far behind, but I'm much more of a meat hunter than trophy hunter. If I'd had a good shot at any of the 4 does, I would've taken it. The buck kept on them behind thick brush, and chased two right under my cousin, and then did what big bucks do.....thread the needle. Somehow, this deer got inside of 25 yards of my cousin, in the only area he could've without being shot, and slipped to the CRP north of our river bottom. Did I mention this process took about an hour to unfold?

Fast forward to Sunday morning. We only have one deer, the least amount ever going into a Sun. morning, and are looking for some does. We decide before heading out that we'd try to drive this chunk at about 10AM. It's a good thing my brothers were a little pokey getting out of their stands.

10:05 I hear what I later found out to be a splash in the river, then some major stick breakage going on directly downwind of me. Within seconds, a big frame appears out of the brush, set to trot within 20 yards of my tree down a great trail that I have several shooting lanes brushed out. I knew he was good, but had the gun up and safety off, scope trained on the opening he was about to trot into. At about 35 yards, the deer hit the brakes, stopped on a dime, and looked right up at me. I hadn't moved or made a sound. He must've winded me, but how he went from trotting with his nose down to instant stop and looking right up at me, I'll never know.

It was now or never, I moved the gun up a bit, picked the tiniest and only hole in the brush I had, and made that shotgun bark. He was hit hard, and running past me now. I had already made the decision upon seeing how good a deer he was, to stop shooting for only two reasons: him falling, or me running out of shells.

2nd shot was a dud! Click! Either the action hadn't fully closed after the 2nd shot, or it was a true dud. I rounded a new one in, lined up another hole in the brush, and squeezed off another round as he ran through. Hit him again! Deer is getting wobbly now, but again, I'm excited, and am not about to let him get away, 50 yds. through the brush I shoot once more. I can tell he's about to go down, but am not convinced. The deer tips over, then gets back up on one foot, then goes down again, then lifts his head 4-5 more times, and it's over.

A drive is in progress to the best of my knowledge, so I ride out the violent shakes and rush of adrenaline without being able to get down from the stand and check him out. 30 minutes later, the push is on, and two does again, thread the needle between the other stander and myself. Upon crossing the river, my uncle falls in, a deer breaks, they shoot, just a fiasco.....I couldn't wait.

We all get to the deer at the same time and admire him. He's been seen many times in our valley, with quite a few folks after him. After going north on Saturday, I'm guessing he was simply on his way back to the does he was after on our land the previous day. One or more of them must've been in heat.

Here's some pics of him this summer:

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Here's after the shot:

bigbuck1.jpg

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bigbuck3.jpg

In the last photo you can see the small hole in his left main beam. Must've hit a sticker from a hawthorne or plumb tree during velvet, as it's still inside the antler.

Body size was smaller, but I'm quite happy. Still have a doe tag or two to fill, I'll be out the next week or so.

Almost forgot, when processing him, we recovered a bullet that was lodged into bone. I'm shooting the Hornady SST's, so the red center you see isn't blood, it's the red polymer tip of th slug that's been pushed back into the main body of the bullet.

bullet.JPG

Joel

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tunrevir Veteran

tunrevir

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Nice job man! Great story with the pics from beginning to end! I'd clean up that slug and counter sink it into the base of the plaque if you do a neck mount. Great job! I love this time of year!

Tunrevir~

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Hotspotter Veteran

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The slug you see in the picture was recovered from the body. It broke a rib and hit the hip-bone and bounced around in there a few times. The first shot went through the top of the left front shoulder blade, and exited out below the right front armpit. THAT is the slug I'd like to see. I looked all over for it. Soft soils don't make it easy. I really wanted to see how well that mushroomed out.

Yep, those are the 300gr Hornady 2 3/4" SST's. I used the partition golds for 3 years, and to be honest, they patterned better in my shotgun than did the Hornady's, but only by a little bit. My open complaint with Winchester is the way they switch their product line. Whether it be turkey or deer ammunition, they come out with something every year that's different, and seem to discontinue their old stuff. That means continually re-sighting in, and what do you do when you have 1 1/2 boxes of the old, and 2 of the new when on the stand?

The Hornady's are a much better value IMO, and I haven't had any problems with them. This is my 3rd deer with them, and I like everything about them so far. Massive wound channels for such a tiny slug (they're really small but HEAVY!). Both other deer were does on pass-thru lung shots, one dropped, and the other ran about 40 yards dead.

The best part is that they're essentially the same Hornady SST bullet that they've perfected in their rifle ammunition for years, just scaled up a bit for the 12/20ga. It's the flattest trajectory I've seen out there, maybe surpassed now with the XPS, but if zeroed at 100yds, they're only 6.7" low at 200. It's to the point where the ballistics/gun/ammunition are no longer the limiting factor for long shots with shotguns, it's the hunter's ability as a marksman. That I suppose could always be called into question though smile.gif.

Joel

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