Hi all! Thought you might want to see my best buck to date with a recurve and how it turned out as a european mount.
I had already killed 2 Doe for the year, but the bucks I saw this year were either too small or 2 far.
The monday following xmas, I got free and went to my huntin area. Monday night brought 5 Doe and 3 fawn into my ryegrass food plot. With no leaves on the trees to speak of, one of the 5 Doe would be looking at that lump in the tree, so I wasn't able to shoot. After about 20 minutes, they spooked and in walked 4 bucks :)
I picked out the best of the bunch and dropped the string. The shot looked bad, so I snuck out and came back the following morning.
Here is the treestand I was sitting in and a shot of the foodplot.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/treestandlocation.jpg)
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/locationryegrass.jpg)
:campfire:
That next morning, I went back to the spot to begin my search, It had been freezing over night, so I was not concerned about the meat, I was however worried about the hit, and about hogs or coyotes finding the buck overnight.
I went to the last place I had seen the deer and found no blood :(
I really didn't expect to with my poor hit. But I had a plan, I started paralleling a ridge and scanning with my bino's. I went down it a mile, moved over and came back a mile, moved over and went back a mile, and did another mile coming back. Nothing!
I then thought about the pond, so made a big loop around it, still nothing! So I returned to the food plot a bit dejected.
:coffee:
Dont be stalling now!!
I had a drink of water and sat down for a minute, and started talking to myself. I said self, you have all day to look, so keep your head up!
I also said, self, that deer had to bleed, you need to look again closer!
So I again went back up to the last spot I had seen the deer, then went a little farther up the ridge.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/100_0742.jpg)
What is this, my heart soared :)
I started following a sparce blood trail and when i looked ahead, I saw an antler, and for a brief second thought it was my deer, but no, it was a drop from last spring.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/dropandarrow.jpg)
I moved up to it and my arrow was laying next to it!
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/blodarrowdrop.jpg)
I thought that was pretty neat! And just beyond that, the blood trail got better.
Let me tell you, I was getting happier by the minute!!! Emotional highs and lows are sometimes hard to take. The farther I went the better the blood trail got. I went over a ridge and down into a little bottom. I found a spot he had bedded and as is my custom, I pulled up my bino's to scan ahead. This time I didn't see dropped antlers, but antlers attached to a dead deer! :)
Here he is, not a monster buck, but my best recurve buck to date!
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/chris2010buck.jpg)
To say the least,I was one happy camper.
I did not have a tripod so I did not take a picture of myself, but have included an old picture of me in treestand.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/huntin/Treestandhunter.jpg)
very nice buck, its sometimes tough to slow down and look real close for the sign that you know is there.. congrats. :thumbsup:
Great deer!
Thats cool GREAT BUCK :thumbsup:
So Yesterday, I didn't have much going on so I decided to make a euromount out of his head.
I have 2 shoulder mounted bucks bigger than this one, one a longbow buck and one a muzzle kill, but to be honest, I prefer Euro mounts and have 4 from previous deer.
So I started by skinning out the head and removing most of the meat. I then put him on to boil.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/deerskullboil.jpg)
I boiled him for 2 hours in water and borax powder.I then pulled him out and removed most of the meat from the skull. Most came off with a hose. I scraped a little with a pocket knife.
I dumped my water and filled it up again with fresh water and dawn dishsoap and boiled him for another 1.5 hours.
Very nice buck! Congrats!
Great story and trophy! Any chance you think that shed may be his form last season? Looks pretty similar from the picture.
Very nice buck Rice. Congrats!!
I use beauty shop peroxide on my mounts since it is more concentrated and apply it with a sponge paint brush. Here is how it looked before.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/before.jpg)
I left it sit over night and rinsed it off this morning. This is what it looks like now. It will whiten up some more in a day or two, but its ready to hang on the wall.
(http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/CKRADA/afterperoxide.jpg)
I will probably put it on a piece of barn wood and add some turkey feathers to spice it up.
Thanks for following along.
Chris Rice
Great job. One quick tip. Let the skull dry up for a few days before you peroxide it because it will take it better when dry.
Nice buck, nice mount, and good job on tracking him!
Good Job tracking him,enjoy your mount.
Chis O: It could be his rack, but that type of rack runs pretty true in a lot of the bucks harvested off this property so who knows. It was neat to find while on the blood trail.
CKR
Great story and pics too! That's a dandy buck. Great job on finding him!
Keeping the Faith!
Magnus
Congrats! Great job on the mount as well!
Very cool and congratulations! Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Nice story! Thank you for sharing. I particularly like the picture of you in a tree stand.
Bruiser buck!
Great all around hunt, from shot to recovery to wall, congratulations.
Earl
Congrats!!
Good job on a nice buck. :thumbsup:
Great buck.. Nice mount job..
Congrats... Gotta love them Widows
Congrats to you. Nice job on the skull. Really looks good.
Nice job, and nice deer!!
Congratulations on a fine buck! I liked your story and your willingness and ability to stay on the trail. You have a fine looking trophy.
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
48# Spirit longbow
45# Martin Hunter recurve
thanks for walking us through that....
Congrats you have done everything really good:the shot, the tracking and the mount.
Nice Job! I almost like the European mount better then the expensive regular mount.
Really cool!
Nice buck! That will make a great looking european mount. Congratulations, and way to stick with the tracking job.
Nice read Great outcome
Nice mount.Good looking buck. :thumbsup:
NICE!! I'd be real happy with a buck like that,(you midwestern guys are spoiled!!), Looks like a mature deer, Roman nose, cool. Shed antler mojo,can't beat that with a stick.
:thumbsup: Thanks for the pics. Nice job all around! :thumbsup:
Super buck. Nice job on the euro process pictorial.
Very nice on all accounts!!
Very Nice !!! :thumbsup:
Bill
Nice buck, nice story!
Awesome adventure, Congrats! :thumbsup:
Nice buck and nice job! Does boiling the skull for 3 1/2 hours soften the bone any?
Congrats on a dandy buck and great mount job.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
That buck meets all of the criteria of a "monster" in MY book!
The whole thing is just cool...especially the part of sharing the whole story!
THANKS!!! :thumbsup:
Great buck congrats
Great buck and story bud :saywhat:
Tracy
AWESOME!!! I love stories with pics, thanks for sharing!
Nice buck Chris and I'd be proud of him too. Love the "old treestand" pic, that must have been from the early days of Trad Gang before all this high tech stuff!
Congratulations on the beautiful buck!
Very Nice...will need to try that!
that antler may be last years shed in my eyes.Hold it up to your rack.Is it???
the more i look.you do have a shed off that buck!
Very nice story and that buck is really nice!
Awesome Buck !!
:thumbsup:
congrats! the euro looks great!!
Nice post. Thanks, Chad
very nice deer Rice, also nice job on the mount.
Cool!
Heck of a buck! Congrats!!!
Skull mount looks great as well!
Great job.
Real nice Buck and he made a real nice mount.
thats awsome. big congrates!!!
also a tutorial on how to do a euro mount. looks like a need to get one of those outdoor boilers now
Congratulations and thanks for sharing!!
Nathan
Nice buck congrats.
Great story and beautiful deer! I would be more than happy with that :thumbsup:
Congrats man!
I'm stoked man,great buck. Thanks for sharing.
very cool congrats