Don't you love it when something actually goes the way it is supposed to? I've had my doubts over the past few days but it finally happened today and I got the chance I've been waiting for.
The past several weeks I have been getting pictures and video of a really nice 8 point on a place we have just down the road. As you would expect the deer was completely nocturnal until about two weeks ago when he paired up with a doe and adopted her pattern. From the use of game cameras and some long range scouting from a high spot about 1,000 yards down the pipeline I able to determine last week that the deer was crossing a pipeline within a 100 yard stretch within a 30 - 45 minute window every day. It sounds easy enough once you figure that out to be able to get a shot at a deer but unfortunately the deer was choosing to cross the pipeline the majority of the time just over our fence along a State High rite-a-way where he would browse on the clover they planted for erosion purposes.
I have spent the past eight afternoons in a ground blind about 150 yards from our fence line and have seen the buck five times between 5:00 - 5:45 but every time he was across the fence. It was excruciating to have to watch the deer graze along the side of the highway about 175 yards away while 18 wheelers drove by and honked at him but I wasn't about to shoot across that fence. Today the persistence paid off and instead of crossing across the fence I looked up to see the buck funneling out of the timber directly across the pipeline about 75 yards away. One well placed shot with the 7wsm and he was down.
From the game camera pictures and videos I figured the buck to be somewhere in the 135-140 range with very good tine and main beam length but light on the mass. Sometimes it's good to be wrong...
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I have had ground shrink many times but this time in particular that wasn't the case. He was a good bit better than I thought and even after measuring him twice I still can't believe that he has that many inches on his head. While he's not a boone and crockett buck I am tickled to death to close the deal on a very respectable 148.25" buck on a place that we have put allot of work into over the past three years. Today was a good day!
The past several weeks I have been getting pictures and video of a really nice 8 point on a place we have just down the road. As you would expect the deer was completely nocturnal until about two weeks ago when he paired up with a doe and adopted her pattern. From the use of game cameras and some long range scouting from a high spot about 1,000 yards down the pipeline I able to determine last week that the deer was crossing a pipeline within a 100 yard stretch within a 30 - 45 minute window every day. It sounds easy enough once you figure that out to be able to get a shot at a deer but unfortunately the deer was choosing to cross the pipeline the majority of the time just over our fence along a State High rite-a-way where he would browse on the clover they planted for erosion purposes.
I have spent the past eight afternoons in a ground blind about 150 yards from our fence line and have seen the buck five times between 5:00 - 5:45 but every time he was across the fence. It was excruciating to have to watch the deer graze along the side of the highway about 175 yards away while 18 wheelers drove by and honked at him but I wasn't about to shoot across that fence. Today the persistence paid off and instead of crossing across the fence I looked up to see the buck funneling out of the timber directly across the pipeline about 75 yards away. One well placed shot with the 7wsm and he was down.
From the game camera pictures and videos I figured the buck to be somewhere in the 135-140 range with very good tine and main beam length but light on the mass. Sometimes it's good to be wrong...
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I have had ground shrink many times but this time in particular that wasn't the case. He was a good bit better than I thought and even after measuring him twice I still can't believe that he has that many inches on his head. While he's not a boone and crockett buck I am tickled to death to close the deal on a very respectable 148.25" buck on a place that we have put allot of work into over the past three years. Today was a good day!
