Well, Ol' Chris was at it again!

On Veteran's Day, which happened to be unseasonably warm, Chris shimmied his way into a tree at about 12:30p.m. prepared to sit until dark. He sent me a text about this time letting me know his plans, and I have to be honest, I thought he was nuts setting up so early on a day where the temps would approach 80.

Well, I would have climbed into the stand at midnight the night before if I had known a buck like his would stroll by!

Around 4, Chris said he looked over his shoulder to see this big boy at about 35 yards making his way directly towards him.

In his words, "When I noticed how gray his face was I thought, 'No way a buck like him will give me an opportunity.'" HA! How about up close and personal!

Chris shot this buck at 5 yards. Immediately after the shot, he mule-kicked and spun, fleeing back the way from which he came. Shortly after disappearing from sight Chris heard a loud crash. He relayed all of this information to me via text message, and asked my advice. I told him what I would do, and we made plans to meet up at dark to begin trailing.

As is usually the case with extreme downward shots, blood on the ground was non-existent. Chris was set up in a fairly narrow, but thick, treeline bordered by bean fields on each side. When we could not locate blood or the deer we decided to scour the treeline in hopes of finding blood, or better yet, the buck.

Chris, his buddy, Wade, and myself slowly worked our way the length of the treeline without success. Moving back to the point of origin we redoubled our search. After slowly working to the area where Chris heard the crash we each went our own direction. A short 40 yards later I poked my head around some brush and spotted this buck lying stone dead. He had made it about 80 yards as the crow flies.

Now, I had been plotting what I would do if I was the lucky one to find the buck. For nearly 3 hours I pondered what I would say.

Well, at the moment of truth, and in the most deadpan voice I could muster, I said, "Chris? Do you want to keep tracking this deer?"

Solemnly, Chris replied, "Why? Not looking good, huh?"

To which I said, "Well, you can keep tracking, (pause for effect) or you can come over and see your buck!"

Without any further adieu, here is Chris' first buck, a dandy 20" wide 10 pt.

 

What a horse!  Very nice.

Looks good.  I bet he is glad you found that one for him.  Congrats to Chris!!

God Bless,
Nathan

Way to go Chris...  Where are you guys in IL?

Nice deer, to bad the G4 is broke

Well done!!

   :eek:      WOWSERS!!!! What a HOG! Congrats on a Buck of a lifetime!      

Congrats!!  

Hope you told him how sorry you were about his first deer. He doesn't have much to look forward to in the future if he is only going to take bucks bigger than what he has already taken.Ha! Ha! Really nice deer. Thanks for sharing.

Congrates on a very nice deer!!

Wow - you Illinois boys need to send some of those hogs out this way!

Nice Deer, Congrats!! How much did he weigh?

QuoteOriginally posted by goldflinger:
Nice Deer, Congrats!! How much did he weigh?

Not sure, didn't have a scale handy. His body was not overly large, but I was glad the drag-out was a short one.

Dusty

Man, great deer.  Congratulations to Chris!!  Oh and nice job on the find.

He's sweet!!! You got any straight head on pics of that rack??? Listen to me, I sound like a pervert!

Nice Buck ....!!

                 

Izzy,

Yes, I do. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died midway through the photo shoot and I did not get as many high quality pics as I would have liked.

I might find the best looking one to post up later this evening.

Dusty

Great deer buddy

Very nice Buck, well done!