Hunting & Fishing 2021 whitetail and biggest to date for both of us

[Matt_3479]

I've been fortunate enough to have good hunting property relatively close to my house as with the past 2 seasons being short on time with a new addition to the family keeping us busy (1 year old
Son).

We got a new stand thrown up in august, camera's set up, new bedding area's made with hinge cutting and clearing shooting lanes. With bow season arriving we passed on a few smaller bucks and a few does but in gerenal it was a much slower start to the season then we are use too.

November 1 shotgun week opens in our area, and with 3 jobs on the go at the moment I wasn't able to take any time off. My brother was more fortunate to jump into the woods and see what he could find. With the rut kicking off we have been playing the extinguisher deer call pretty hard.

He got a few does and a beautiful 6 point to come in hot! He hasn't bagged a buck in 8 years I believe now. He passed only to see a much larger buck being stubborn and not closing the distance. The following day he snuck back out and jumped back on the call, a young 4 point came in followed by that beautiful 6 showing his dominance over the 4. As he let them break way from eye sight, he let go a few bleats and had a very eagar 9 point show up and came within 35 yards!! Needless to say, his dry spell was over!!

Well Friday rolls around and due to unexpected circumstances I had a day off, and finally found someone to baby sit while I snuck out for a hunt of my own. A slow start began picking up about an hour and a half into the sit with a doe feeding around 120 yards to my left. Once she broke sight, I banged the rattling antlers together quickly, and got on the extinguisher deer call and let go a young doe bleat followed by an old doe bleat and finishing off with a buck on the move grunting and an old buck growl. Well not 3 mins later I pick up a flash of movement around 100 yards to the back left. I grabbed my 220, to see a tall buck snorting and stopping his feet. He caught a glimpse of movement and took a few hasty steps to his right and stopped behind a tree broadside. Flicked the safety off and he took one last step exposing his shoulder and the 20 gauge absolutely hammered him. He made it 27 yards and fell over in sight which is always nice to see!!

Well the anticipation was killing me and I climbed down to get my hands on him. Now I've shot some nice bucks, some respectable bucks but all have been 8 points and can't seem to shake that lol when I walked up I could see it was an 11 point and absolutely was pumped!! He was rutted up, stunk, scares on his neck, a bit swollen up, and was a good deer. After bringing him to my taxidermist he estimates him at 150-160" deer and with a super rough measurement taken it shows upper 150's low 160's ( taken twice) I'm sure after shrinkage he will land somewhere in the 150's which puts him as my biggest buck yet!!

My brother said pictures don't do the buck justice as his mass isn't easy to see in the picture.

We have 4 more target bucks for sure and hoping we can fill 1 more buck tag on one of them, a big heavy 8, a wide heavy 9 it looks, a unique 10 with hooked brow times and a triple drop tine buck and then fill the freezer with a pair or does!

 

[Im2bent]

Very nice but better make sure he doesn't have the covids